All for a smile
by shyalien
Summary: Callie has her life in shambles. The hospital that was her safe haven was now filled with gossip about her failed personal life. All she had left was her tears. Arizona Robbins is starting her life from the beginning in Seattle, can her encounters help a certain doctor smile again.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: Hey. So, this is the first time i am ever writing a story all by myself and publishing it for the whole world to see. i hope you guys like it. All encouraging comments will be very welcomed. yep. i am asking for encouragement here.**

 **happy reading**

 **...**

The morning light filtered through the large bedroom windows and tickled the soft flesh of the eyelids of the tan woman. She was lying on her stomach in her usual starfish position. The satin sheets were failing miserably in covering the soft flesh of her body. The light along with the coolness she felt on her naked skin were unusual and were pulling her out from the world of possibilities that we call dreams. The more she became aware of the real world, the more prominent her headache got, it felt like her head was about to explode into a million pieces. Her breath still reeked of alcohol, a daunting proof of her over consumption of the particular liquid last night. She couldn't remember even a millisecond of what had occurred last night and the exhaustion she felt combined with the headache, was too overwhelming to allow her to even try. If she had to attribute a good thing to this morning, then it was that she at least didn't have any urge to throw up unlike the many past experiences she had with hangover.

A deep groan escaped her dry lips, her throat crying out for water. She was never a morning person and this hangover was making her even lazier. She tried one last time to ignore everything and sleep so she didn't have to face the despair that her life had become now. But the try was vain as the headache made itself known with more intensity. This time it was a deep sigh that escaped her lips as she realized that getting up was inevitable.

She began to stretch her body, trying to move the tired and sore muscles when her hand hit some foreign object in her bed. The contact startled her for a moment and she stilled her movements, mid-stretch. She tried to search her mind, trying to figure out what it could be but came up empty. Though the easiest and most sensible way would have been to simply turn around and see with her own eyes what this mystery object was. But the truth was that inside, she was scared. In some deep corner of her unconscious mind she knew that whatever it was, it wasn't good. But her conscious mind was too far gone, and the worst scenarios started going through her head. What if she stole something or worst what if she stole something from him.

"Oh God! Was I that drunk?" she questioned herself.

She sent a silent prayer to God and took a deep breath as she started turning around. But all thoughts and scenarios went out the window when her eyes landed on the source of her curiosity. Her mind went numb completely. Her body was stiff and motionless like a magnificent statue. Minutes passed as she sat motionless on the bed, with an empty and shell shocked mind.

"What the hell!" she finally muttered, her heart beating erratically in her chest. Because lying on the other side of the bed was not a what but a whom.

Her mind went on overdrive trying to remember anything about the guy that was lying on her bed. The guy had his back to her and was totally covered by the sheets. He had the pillow on his head rather than below it. But she could see a few strands of blonde hair. The only thing visible was the top of his white shirt. His state of being clothed suddenly made her aware of her own state of nakedness. Her cheeks immediately turned red when her mind made sense of what might have happened last night and she immediately got up from the bed.

'All you have to do is get to the closet without making too much noise and put some clothes on. You can do that' she thought, coming up with a fool proof plan, all the while encouraging herself.

But turned out that her hungover self, ruined the previously thought 'fool proof' plan. She almost tripped over her own feet twice before she almost fell on the closet door with a thud and then began nervously shuffling through the clothes, making all sorts of noises. The truth was that she was flustered because of the situation she found herself in. It was not that she was shy about having sex, but couldn't remember anything about her companion and now he was in her home and that unsettled her. But most of all, she was already getting all sorts of stares from the people in the hospital and she didn't know if this person was from the hospital. If he was then he could make things even worse.

"I'm just so stupid. I had to get extremely drunk and sleep with this douche. Whoever he is. I hope he is at least good looking. And I didn't sleep with a weird looking jerk. But who knows. I was drunk. I am so crazy. Maybe the guy was acceptable if I let him stay here for the night. Yeah that could be." She kept on talking to herself, ranting, trying to give words to her thoughts. But what she didn't realize was that the rant that started as incomprehensible mumbling when she started putting on her pants had increased into a full blown loud conversation with her own self as she was about to wear a shirt.

"Calliope! Are you okay?" a sleepy voiced asked.

That question effectively stopped her in her tracks, with her head and one arm through the shirt, as the other arm dangled freely. She wasn't completely 100% sure but she thought that the groggy voice sounded fairly feminine. And not just that but the voice had called her Calliope.

'It was just your imagination.' She tried to ease herself with her thoughts.

With the shirt half on she slowly turned around and her face looked like she had been electrocuted. Because for the second time in a few minutes she was shocked to her core. Because whom she thought was a blonde guy, was actually a blonde woman. She was sitting on her bed, with a sleepy face, messed up hair, crumpled clothes on and rubbing her eyes probably trying to get rid of the sleep. She had a worried expression on her face as she anxiously looked at Callie.

Callie for her part, was still shocked rather the correct word would be traumatized. She couldn't understand anything. There was a girl in her bed and she was naked when she woke up. Her mind couldn't come up with the conclusion that was oh so obvious.

"Are you gonna wear that shirt completely or is this how you like to walk around home?" the woman asked with a hint of jest in her voice.

She was now standing next to Callie, and that question suddenly brought her out of her inner turmoil.

"Who the hell are you? And what are you doing in my home." Callie suddenly burst out in anger.

She took a few steps back trying to create space between this woman and herself. She needed answers about her current situation. And it looked like that only this woman had them. The other woman looked taken aback by the sudden outburst until suddenly realization dawned on her face.

"You don't remember anything, do you?" the other woman said it more like a statement. "You were pretty drunk."

"Just answer the damn question." Callie hissed at the woman.

Hearing the woman's statement opened all new vistas for Callie and suddenly she had an epiphany. She was drunk and she clearly didn't remember the other woman from the sober memories she had from yesterday. So, it meant that the woman had taken advantage of her in her drunk and vulnerable state. And so it was a proof that she didn't purposefully sleep with a woman. She could never sleep with a 'woman'.

"My name is Ari…" the woman started speaking.

"You took advantage of me while I was drunk." Callie barked back her new revelation at the other woman.

The other woman who until now was very calm, suddenly became furious. It looked like she had enough of an angry and disrespecting Callie.

"You were the one who kept staring at me all night." The woman replied with a voice filled to the brim with anger. She had a finger pointing at Callie as she took a step towards Callie.  
"You are the one who sent me drinks." Another step.  
"You are the one who wouldn't stop hitting on me." another step.  
"And you are the one who followed me out of the bar when I left." The woman was now just a few inches away from Callie, the finger that she was pointing with was now touching Callie's chest. "And you have the audacity to say that I took advantage of you." The woman was practically fuming.

Callie was overwhelmed because of the closeness with a woman she had most probably slept with last night. Now that she was this close to the woman, she couldn't help but notice her features, running her eyes over the blonde's face and appreciating the woman in front of her. Until her eyes landed on the deep blue eyes which were filled with fury that she snapped out 'a bit'.

"I… I… you… I didn't… you don't…" Callie tried but words were failing her because her mind was too busy being enthralled by the woman to help her.

"Oh so now you don't have words." the other woman scoffed as she turned around and walked out of the room.

As the woman moved away, Callie released a breath she didn't know she was holding and followed the other woman.

'She is lying. I would never hit on a woman. I don't even like woman that way.' Callie thought justifying things.

"Who the hell do you think you are? First you take advantage of a drunken woman and then you have the courage to blame things on me. I might not remember anything but that doesn't mean I would let you take advantage of that." she scoffed. "Well, at least not more than you have already taken." Callie went on a panicked anger spree and there was no coming back now.

"I should probably call the police. Have you stolen anything? I don't even know what kind of a person you are. Oh my god, I don't even know if you have STDs. Did you give me something?"

"Shut up!" the other woman screamed when she had enough. "Think whatever you want, I don't care. I am out of here."

"That's the best thing you have said since I saw your face. Get out! Now!" Callie shouted back.

"Whatever" the blonde said as she left and slammed the door behind her.

While Callie was left shocked and still unable to understand what actually had happened. She was so confused. Her mind was unable to understand what she had done or what had happened. Before she could actually sit and process the events of the day, her eyes landed on the clock and she realized she needed to hurry up if she wanted to get to the hospital on time for her shift.

"Somebody is doing the walk of shame." Teddy teased as she saw Arizona enter the apartment. "You are fast Robbins, scoring the day you came to the city. Go girl." She cheered extending her hand towards her childhood best friend for a high five.

Arizona just glared at Teddy, sending invisible daggers her way. She passed Teddy, ignoring the hand that was awaiting her response and plopped down on the sofa.

"What? Wasn't the girl good enough." Teddy inquired with pure curiosity. "At least tell me she was good looking."

"I didn't sleep with anyone okay." Arizona finally replied with a voice full of irritation. "Now leave me alone." She swatted her hands towards Teddy shooing her away.

"Oh yeah you didn't. You were just sleeping next to a woman doing nothing. Right?" Teddy scoffed and rolled her eyes as she taunted Arizona. But seeing the look on her face, Teddy suddenly stopped.

"Oh my god! That is exactly what happened, isn't it." Teddy asked as she stared at Arizona's angry face. "But why? I don't understand."

Arizona took a deep breath trying to calm her anger.

"Well when we reached her place, she started crying and was totally drunk." Arizona said and chanced a glance towards Teddy who had her mouth hung open just staring at her friend. "So I sat her down, gave her water and you know consoled her and all. Like any normal person would do." Arizona replied feeling embarrassed about the events of last night.

"Yeah. Totally. Any normal person would do that." Teddy tried to control her growing smirk almost successfully, almost.

"Wipe that grin off your face Altman." Arizona warned with a threatening tone. But now Teddy was supporting a full blown smirk. "Okay I won't tell you what happened then." Arizona threatened.

That straightened Teddy and the smirk quickly disappeared from her face. Arizona didn't know what she would do if Teddy didn't listen to her because she really needed to vent out. Then she proceeded to explain the events that took place till the time she was kicked out.

At that Teddy burst out laughing, tears running down her face as she held her stomach and fell on the floor.

"She… she kicked you out." Teddy managed to say in between laughs. "That's just priceless. I would have loved to see you face then." Teddy couldn't imagine how Arizona would have looked like. She was picturing a deer caught in the headlights look on Arizona's face and that was proving to be very funny for her.

"Hey don't make fun of me." Arizona huffed trying to stop her cheeks from getting red.

"So let me get this straight. You didn't get to sleep with the girl rather you spent the night helping her, then she blamed you for taking advantage of her and kicked you out." Teddy said after she had finally calmed down.

"yes." Arizona replied with an angry face.

"Welcome to Seattle Arizona Robbins." Teddy said and started laughing again while Arizona just huffed and threw a cushion at her laughing friend trying to make her stop.


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you, thank you, thank you so much for the awesome response you guys gave me. Thank you for all the follows and favorites. And most of all thank you for all the lovely reviews, they really motivated me and got my spirits up. I was grinning like a fool every time I read a review. :P**

 **That being said, here is the next chapter. And I hope you like it. And reviews are welcomed because they make me grin like a fool. :P**

 **last episode: all of us including Callie thought she slept with our cute blonde. :P but we were all wrong but Callie doesn't know that yet and she also kicked Az out. :P**

… **..**

Dr. Callie Torres was having the worst day ever. Not like other days were any better but today had especially been weighing her down. The moment she entered the halls of the hospital, she knew something was up. She could see eyes on her from all directions, trying to penetrate a hole in her soul and find out what she was feeling. But that wasn't an unusual thing. As soon as the news of her and George getting a divorce got out she had been on a roller coaster. People blamed her for breaking his heart, because he was the sweet intern who could do no wrong. And she was the resident who used the intern and exploited her position. All she got after that were glares and stern looks, breaking down the walls of strength and courage she had created as a façade for the world. At times she was paged and there were no patients for her to see at all. She was the center of pranks. If she would ask for a favor people ignored her. It wasn't like everyone treated her that way. There were people who supported her but they were very few. Her best friend Mark Sloan had been her greatest supporter throughout the whole debacle. Then yesterday there had been new rumors about the story of how the marriage breaking was her fault. How she had slept with Mark and that infidelity was the actual cause of the breaking marriage.

This new rumor had evoked a whole new kind of negative response. If she thought people were being harsh before, after this new rumor they were ruthless and plain cruel. People who originally talked behind her back were now talking in front or her. Some group of interns had given her a nickname that wasn't respectable at all, quite the opposite in fact. The only time she got to breathe was when she was operating. When she had taken a seat in the café with Mark yesterday, it had given people ammunition to shoot at her already injured and bleeding soul. And after her shift was over, she had gone to the nearest bar that wasn't Joe's. She just wanted to get away from the judging people, who were accusing her of all the false things. The irony of the situation had not been lost on her. George was the one who had cheated by sleeping with his best friend, yet she was the one being accused of that crime. So, to forget the mess that she was in, to wipe the memories of smiles on George and Izzie's faces and to forget about her mistakes and troubles; she had drunk herself into oblivion.

'And look where that got me; into a whole new mess with that blonde.' She thought as she made her way further into the hospital.

But she just couldn't ignore the stares. They were very different today. They weren't angry and lacked the usual hate and accusation. Rather today they held pity. But, she just ignored everything and kept walking with her head bowed down, not daring to look at anyone.

'What the hell is happening?' she questioned herself.

She ignored the elevators like she had been doing since the problem with George started and moved towards the stairs. All the while she was silently praying for the stairwell to be empty. When she finally reached her ward, she released a deep breath. She was now safe from the gossiping people. And soon she would be in her heaven, the OR. But she couldn't have been more wrong. Because as soon as she picked a chart up from the nurses station, her ears picked up the conversation in which three nurses were eagerly involved.

"Poor Dr. Torres." She heard one of the nurses say in the most pitiful tone ever.

"Yeah she has been through so much." the other nurse piped in with a sympathetic note to her tone.

"And the people have been so cruel to her when it wasn't even her fault and she didn't even say anything." the final member involved in the discussion added.

"And look at the nerve of O'Malley, first he cheated and then he let the whole hospital blame her." one of the nurses added making Callie almost drop the chart that was in her hand.

'How did they know?' she wondered.

She didn't know how to react. Her hands were clammy and holding the chart seemed like a strenuous task. Her heart was beating at an abnormal pace. She felt like she couldn't breathe anymore. She had to get out of this place. And instinctively, she started making her way towards the resident's lounge with staggering feet.

As soon as the door closed behind her, she slid down the nearest wall, and landed on the floor with an ungraceful thud. She was panicking inside and had no idea why. Her breathing was ragged and her body shaking. Her hands were tightly clenched at her sides. The blurring of her vision made her aware of the tears that were now staining her face. Why was she having such a reaction? People knowing the truth was a good thing. People not calling her the villain was supposed to be good. She had always thought that when the truth came out she would feel a sense of relief flood her existence. But the reality was quite the opposite. She was hiding in a room, a crying mess rather than the happy trooper she imagined she would be.

But soon reality dawned on her like lighting in the sky, intense and so very scary, making you flinch no matter how much you tried to resist it. Before, she was seen as the rebellious strong woman who walked over a man's heart, who thought she was too good. A woman who was ruthless. She was the bad guy but she was considered strong. But now, now she was the woman who got walked over, who was treated like a door mat. Now, she was the woman who wasn't good enough to keep her husband faithful. She was the woman who got rejected, who got left behind. She was the woman whose significant other didn't care enough about their relationship to not hurt them. She was a tissue paper which was used to wipe tears and then thrown away when the tears subsided and the smile took over.

And now everyone one was looking at her with pitiful eyes. Now she was the pathetic woman who everyone felt sympathetic for. She felt her pride taking a fall, her backbone bending a little. She sensed herself getting shorter. She was the woman everyone was feeling sorry for and that bothered her immensely.

All this made her fall even deeper into the trenches of misery. And the thought of maybe actually not being worth much invaded her brain. But before she could dwell too much on it, her pager beeped making her jump. She checked the pager, and roughly brushed her sleeves on her face, getting rid of the tears and got up; running out of the room towards the ER.

Truth was that the 911 page was her saving grace. Because, if she would have sat there pondering about her life events with her current mindset she would have entered the land of depression. And it is a well-known fact that walking through that wretched land unharmed is not an easy feat to accomplish. People who do finally come out are always changed forever.

…

"Arizona!" Teddy's voice rang throughout the apartment. "I am leaving for the hospital, my shift is about to start."

Arizona entered the living room walking as lazily as she could because she knew that would irritate Teddy. And she just can't let a chance to do that just go by her.

"I'm coming Teddy. No need to go crazy." Arizona replied.

"Can you move any slower?" Teddy asked irritated. She was getting late and she didn't have time for this. Arizona was getting on her nerves.

"I'm here. I'm here. Impatient much." Arizona kept her teasing up, with mischief sparkling in her eyes. And Teddy caught on to it atlast.

"Well yeah after being kicked out from a woman's house, you are bound to be all slow and lazy. I understand." Teddy jabbed back, ready to take revenge.

"wha…" Arizona's mouth just hung open. She wasn't expecting that. This made Teddy laugh out loud.

"You don't play fair Altman." Arizona replied with a huge pout on her face.

"Okay. Okay. I'm sorry." Teddy replied as she moved to hug her friend and trying to tickle her.

"So, my shift ends at 8. Why don't you come over to the hospital and then we can both go out, eat and have some drinks." Teddy suggested, wanting to spend some time with her friend.

"Well keeping in mind the fact that none of us cook, I think that is a wonderful idea." Arizona laughed, agreeing with the plan.

"Okay then, bye roomie." And with that Teddy left the apartment, leaving a smiling Arizona behind.

The idea of starting fresh in a new place was turning out to be pretty good if she just excluded the kicking out part. And having her childhood friend near was so much better than she expected. She had a feeling that her life here was going to be pretty good.

…..

The whole day had been a torture for Callie. She had been stuck in the OR with O'Malley and Izzie. And that wasn't even the worst part. The worst part was that this week Izzie Stevens was on her service. She couldn't get away from her even if she wanted or tried. She had to listen to her happy, perky and shrill voice most of the day. And now she just wanted to go and hide. Thankfully her shift was now over and she could go home and feel miserable in the solace of her home. She didn't know if she could take the pity in people's eyes anymore. Before she could think about her next move she heard the loud voice of none other than Mark Sloan.

"Torres. I was looking all over for you." He spoke loudly with his typical smirk but he had worried eyes.

"I was in a surgery." She simply replied. "With O'Malley and Stevens." She added as an afterthought when she started walking towards the resident's lounge.

"Oh!" this was the only response he could manage.

"Yeah." She replied.

"Well you won't have to see them for the rest of the day so be happy." Mark tried to make her look at the positive side of things before he got into the heavy stuff.

"Stevens is on my service for the rest of the week." Mark again received a flat toned reply as Callie entered the lounge.

"That is nothing to worry about." Callie immediately glared at him at this response and he raised his hands up in the air defensively. "I mean you can exchange her with my intern. I will take her off your hands." Mark cleared up in a hurry.

"You will do that?" she asked with a thankful look.

Mark noticed how exhausted his best friend looked. And he didn't know how to change that.

"Obviously. You don't have to worry about anything. So how are you really feeling? Last night you just disappeared after your shift." He had empathy and care in his voice trying to convey his emotions.

"Oh! Yesterday." Callie was almost taken aback by the question. Not because it was an absurd or an unusual question but because she didn't know how to respond to it. Her cheeks immediately changed color and she couldn't meet Mark's eyes.

Mark noticed the lack of eye contact and the way Callie was playing with her hands. And he knew something was up.

"What did you do Torres?" he questioned. "Tell me it isn't very bad, whatever it is that you did. Maybe we can fix it." he was now full on panicking.

"Shut up." Callie stopped him from worrying more. Then she looked around to make sure nobody was around. She didn't want the whole world to know.

"I went to a bar, got drunk, and then woke up naked with a woman in my bed." she said as fast as she could in the quietest voice she could manage.

"You had a naked woman in your bed!" Mark shouted in shock. His mouth was hung open and for the first time in his life Mark Sloan felt speechless.

Callie almost hissed at his loudness.

"Can you say that any louder, I don't think people in the ER heard that." she gave Mark an angry glare and then turned around. "And she wasn't naked, I was."

Slowly and gradually the shock wore off of Mark and then the largest smirk Callie had ever seen took over his face. And at that instant Callie regretted telling him about the night.

"So she did all the work. How was it? Was she good? What exactly did you guys do? Tell me everything." Mark was almost bouncing in excitement and Callie just face palmed herself. She didn't know what she could tell him when she barely remembered anything.

"Oh did you do it in the morning too?" the childish grin was not ready to leave his face. He was like child on Christmas morning. His eyes had a dazed look that was so unlike a child would have.

"Mark focus." Callie snapped her fingers in front of him. "And I don't know."

"What do you mean 'you don't know'? You don't know if it was good or not?" Mark now looked seriously confused.

Callie was totally embarrassed now. The whole situation was so weird.

"I was drunk and I don't remember anything that happened. I just know I saw her in my bed when I woke up. And then I kicked her out." Callie finally told the whole truth. And saying it out loud finally made it really register in her head.

"What! You kicked her out. Why? What did she do? Tell me you asked her what happened or you at least asked her name." he asked shocked. "And that is no way to treat a lady Torres." He added with a wink.

"Why would I ask her name? And obviously I kicked her out. She took advantage of me being drunk. I wouldn't have slept with her otherwise. I am not gay Mark." She replied, defending her actions with full force.

Mark just sighed. After all the excitement he was felling, things came crashing back down and now he was disappointed. He was almost picturing the details before Callie ruined it all.

"Well if she would have taken advantage of you, then don't you think she would have left before you woke up?" Mark questioned.

"I … I didn't… OH MY GOD!" Callie shrieked. "I was such a bitch to her. I just thought… I thought it was her, because… because I am not gay." She stuttered. Now she was feeling guilty.

'Great one more thing to make me feel bad.' She thought.

Before their discussion could go any further a loud beep of the pager was heard.

'Don't let it be mine. After the day I have had, you owe me at least that.' Callie prayed in her head. 'Please' she added at the end just to be sure the guy above accepted her request.

"It's mine." Mark said before she could even check her pager. But he looked torn. He didn't want to leave without telling Callie the big news circulating around the hospital.

"What?" Callie asked noticing his struggle. But Mark's pager beeped again.

"Damn it. Cal, we need to talk. I need to tell you something. I will come over to your place after my shift."

The seriousness in his voice made Callie stop and stare at the door that was now closing behind Mark. Whatever it was he wanted to talk about was very important. And she was sure it was about her. She thought about what new thing it could be but came up empty. But in the corner of her head a voice said that it was better this way. Whatever Mark had to tell her, she was sure she wasn't prepared to hear it.

….

Callie had her head down as she made a beeline towards the exit doors. She couldn't wait to get out. Her steps were hurried and fast. And when she finally stepped on the paved surface, she released a long sigh. She had gone through another day without falling. She was struggling badly but at least she wasn't giving up. One day at a time had been her mantra.

'Another day gone. Many more to go.' She thought as she took another step forward but stopped in her tracks when she heard someone call her name.

Apparently the day wasn't as over as she thought. She was trying to get away from him and thought she had accomplished that. But the universe is a funny place. As soon as she felt she was safe, the universe just played one of its tricks and proved her wrong. She could hear him running trying to get to where she was rooted to the ground. She took a deep breath, schooling her features and calming herself down.

'I can take whatever he has to say. I am strong. I have been showing that every single day.' She gave herself a mental pep talk and slowly turned around and came face to face with her soon to be ex-husband.

"George." She acknowledged his presence, showing no sign of the heart break she was going through.

"Hey Callie. Do you have a minute to talk?" he had timid expression on his face. He looked almost scared.

"Oh now you want to talk." Callie scoffed.

Apparently nothing had changed. When Callie was being blamed for everything he didn't correct anyone. And when Callie had tried to find him to smash down the false rumors once and for all, he had avoided her like a plaque. He let her suffer even though he knew he was the culprit. And now the very day, the news of him being the cheater and the one to break the marriage was out, he was here standing in front of Callie wanting to talk.

"Callie I am trying to have a conversation here with you, please." He responded with irritation.

"What about me? What about when I was trying to talk to you. You ignored me and avoided me. And now you want me to listen." She questioned angrily, trying to cover her breaking voice. And to her surprise her words sounded much stronger than she actually felt.

"I know. I know I was avoiding you." He ran a hand through his hair out of frustration. "It was because I knew that you wanted to talk about the rumors. But I couldn't help you. Izzie wasn't ready for everyone to know. And I didn't want her to feel pressured so I avoided you." He replied truthfully.

Callie was breaking inside. Here standing in front of her was the man who once claimed to be head over heels in love with her and married her. The man who promised to cherish her and take care of her for the rest of his life. But now he was standing here, looking her in the eye as he told her that he let her be pushed around and disrespected for the things that he had done, because he didn't want to cause any sort of problem for another woman; his mistress. It was like she didn't even exist, like her feelings didn't matter. And he had said it all like there was nothing wrong with what he did. Maybe for him there wasn't.

She looked away from him, trying to stay composed and not let the tears pricking the back of her eyes fall down her face.

'He wouldn't care even if he saw them.' a voice in her head mocked.

George took her silence as his cue to continue talking. Not noticing what havoc his words were bringing upon her.

"But see that's why I am here. Things are different now. We are getting divorced officially after two days. But I couldn't wait. So I proposed to Izzie. She said yes. And everyone knows." He said with a big smile on his face. "You don't need to worry, everyone knows now. They know it wasn't you. So no more anger."

Callie sucked in a deep breath at his words. Her head started spinning. And everything came crashing down right in front of her. Just when she thought she could catch a break, things had taken a turn for the worse. She could hear the smile in his voice. She knew she was about to breakdown but she didn't want him to see her in her most vulnerable state. So she just simply turned around and started walking and tears broke the dam containing them and started caressing the broken features of the woman. She could hear him shouting her name, but she just kept on walking.

…..

She had barely crossed the hospital property line when an overwhelming pain took over her. It felt like the air was knocked out from her. The tears seemed to be coming out at an alarming speed. She felt the world spin around her and standing up straight became an issue. She moved her hands out, frazzled, trying to find support. Her hand connected with a boundary wall and her whole body immediate fell on the wall on its own accord, failing to bear all her weight.

She had fallen in love with the 'heart in the elevator guy' the minute she heard about him. She was impressed. And when she had finally met him, he had acted so bravely. She knew she had developed a serious crush on him. She tried getting his attention but he was totally oblivious to her attempts. And that had made her crush on him even harder. She was extremely attracted to the innocence of the intern. And so, being the confident and strong woman she once was, she had gone straight up to him and asked him out.

One date gave way to many more, and soon they were the talk of the hospital. She had enjoyed his company so much. He was just so innocent, caring and loving. His smile was enough to make Callie melt. And soon she realized she had fallen deeply in love with this guy. She had even met his family and they had loved her. She had thoroughly enjoyed the love and care they gave her. She was the happiest woman in the world. She had told him she loved him but he didn't say the words back. And she was so sure of their love that she knew he would eventually say it back.

And then George's father died. And she had been there for him in every way possible. And then out of the blue one day he had proposed her. And so, they had gotten married in Vegas. People were really shocked at how sudden it all was but she was happy. She was married to the man of her dreams. The guy who loved her.

But she was too blind to see that she was just being used as a bandage for his wounds. That he didn't really love her as he claimed finally when they got married. She was just being used. But when his wounds healed. When he finally recovered from the loss of his father, he started ignoring her. She thought she might have done something wrong and tried even harder to please him. But somewhere in her head she knew the reason of his coldness. But she wasn't ready to accept it. But the day she walked in on Izzie and George during the act, she couldn't ignore the daunting truth anymore.

Later George had openly admitted to never loving Callie and having a crush on Izzie from the beginning. And the world that Callie knew had come crashing down. All of the duration of her relationship was brought into question. Her reality that she was living in from the beginning was just an illusion. None of his feelings had been true. But for Callie every second and every minute she had spent with him, was true. Her feeling were always genuine. They were real and they were deep. And that is why when George dismissed their whole relationship so easily she had lost everything.

But deep down somewhere, she had hope that he had felt something. That their relationship was not completely a lie. But now hearing George about proposing Izzie had crushed that hope.

She had loved him so dearly. She had fallen for him so deeply. Everything he did, made her love him even more. But he was just pretending. He never felt anything.

Maybe he was right in never loving her. Maybe she wasn't worth loving. If he couldn't love her after knowing her for such a long time then it proved that she wasn't loveable. She had been by his side in his worst phase of life, but he had just thrown her away. She had stayed by him because she thought he was precious. But apparently he didn't think any such thing about Callie. Maybe she truly wasn't as great as her father made her to be.

As these thoughts invaded her mind she started sobbing loudly as she slid down the wall and ended up sitting on the pavement. Her hand was clutching her chest because it hurt too much and she didn't know how to stop it.

What made him cheat on me, she wondered. Was she not beautiful enough? Maybe she wasn't attentive to his needs. Maybe she didn't make him smile. Maybe she was not caring enough. Maybe she wasn't easy to talk to. Maybe all of those reason were true.

And so her line of thought started moving in the direction of self-blaming and she completely broke down; not caring about other people around.

…..

Arizona was at the hospital waiting to meet up with Teddy. Her phone dinged and alerted her to an incoming message. It was from Teddy informing her about an incoming trauma and telling her that she might be a bit late. Having nothing else to do she decided to walk around the hospital and see what the closest attractions around were. Teddy had mentioned about a bar. She called it Joe's. Maybe she could wait for Teddy there. She just needed to find it first.

She had barely walked a few feet when she heard the distinct sounds of someone sobbing very loudly. She was immediate alarmed, thinking that someone might be hurt or injured and started running towards the direction the sounds were coming from.

As soon as she reached closer to the source of the sobs, she saw a woman sitting on the pavement with her head in her hands, crying uncontrollably. She slowed down and started taking careful steps towards the stranger on the ground. A part of her was scared to disturb the stranger. Before she could shy away from the stranger, the lights of a passing car illuminated her figure. And Arizona immediately recognized the woman.

She was looking at none other than Calliope Torres. The woman who had kicked her out this morning. But the sobs emanating from that beautiful woman broke her heart. She took a deep breath and slowly made her way towards the woman and sat down next to her.

"We really need to stop meeting like this." Arizona said, trying to get the other woman's attention.

Callie was startled by the voice that was so close to her. She lifted her head up to see the face of the blonde woman from the morning. She carelessly and sloppily rubbed her hands on her eyes trying to get her vision to clear up. But the woman was still there. She didn't want pity from the woman she had treated badly and she wasn't in the mood for company.

"I think I made it clear in the morning that I don't want you around me. So, please leave." She tried to keep her voice strong but it came out broken and weak.

Arizona was taken aback for a moment but then she realized this was exactly what she would do if the roles were reversed. No one wants to be seen by a stranger in their most vulnerable state. She would have probably lashed out too, so that people would leave her alone and she can wallow in her own misery.

"Calliope, please just…" Arizona started but the other woman almost flinched at her voice.

"Just leave me alone." Callie shouted and buried her face in her hands as another wave of sobs took over her body. "Everyone does."

She didn't want this woman to see her like this. So broken and battered. Finally she heard shuffling of feet in between her sobs and thought the other woman had left. And that was all the encouragement she needed and she started crying again loudly now that she knew no one was around. She could feel herself melting, falling apart.

But then she was suddenly engulfed in a tight hug. He body tensed up instantaneously. But the very next second her body fell into the arms of the other person, her hands coming up to tightly clench the material of their shirt as she buried herself deeper. And then she let go of all her inhibitions and allowed all her pent up emotions to come out.

She didn't know how long she sat there crying in the arms of the woman, whose name even she was unaware of. But it felt good, it felt great to let it all out. But at the same time the comfort and the support the other woman was providing kept her grounded. It was like the blonde's arms were holding her together and preventing her from breaking and falling apart completely. Eventually when her crying got lighter, she heard the other woman's soothing voice.

"None of this is your fault Calliope." Callie was shocked. How did this woman know what she was thinking?

'You are sitting in the middle of nowhere, crying your eyes out, so obviously she knows something is wrong.' She thought.

She buried herself further in the woman's body resting her head in the crook of her neck. She didn't want the woman to see her face while she talked because she was embarrassed. That was the statement she used to justify still being in her arms. But the truth was that she wanted the comfort the other woman was providing, so graciously, to last longer but she wasn't ready to accept that truth.

"He cheated, not you." Arizona said.

Callie's whole body tensed up as she realized the other woman knew what the source of her distress was. She immediately pulled out of the hug and stared at the woman in utter shock. Arizona just locked her eyes with Callie as she spoke further.

"HE lied to you, HE deceived you, HE used you and HE cheated on you. And that is on HIM, not on you. That shows that he was not the right person here. That shows he was the one with the faulty personality and cruel mind. That shows that he wasn't strong enough to be truthful to you, he wasn't courageous enough to face his problems alone. And he wasn't bold enough to face the world. He is the one who has failed as a husband and a human being. He was not gutsy enough to share what was in his heart and so he hid behind a lying façade. While you were the strong woman who had the courage to fall in love and be sincere and truthful about it. You were the woman who wasn't afraid to fly. You were the woman who made him strong and helped him stand again. If this all proves anything then it's that you are the strongest person ever. YOU ARE STRONG and he is the weak one. So, be sad about the loss of your love, but don't even for a second think that any of this was your fault. Because it was his cowardice that caused all this. His unfaithful personality. That says something about him. It has nothing to do with you. So don't feel ashamed. Be who you are and have always been. A badass strong woman as you said yourself last night." Arizona added the last part with a wink and then proceeding to wipe the tears off form Callie's face with the utmost care.

Callie for her part was shocked but was processing each and every word that was being said to her. She was, for the first time, realizing that it was not her. It was George's. She was actually starting to accept it. And that surprised her. And what astonished her the most was the amount of information the other woman had. And it looked like she was the one who had given all these details to the other woman last night.

"You are talented, smart, beautiful and just plain amazing through and through. So be proud of your strength and walk tall." Arizona said with conviction in her voice. "Because there would be millions of people who would consider themselves lucky if you even smiled at them." Arizona added with a smile and stood up. And then as though it occurred to her later, as an afterthought. She bent down and placed the softest of kisses on Callie's cheek and walked away. While Callie just stared at the retreating woman, too shocked to do or say anything.

"Thank you" Callie said silently after a few minutes. She didn't know if the other woman realized it or not, but she had just saved Callie from her own thoughts. She needed to hear every word that the woman had said. She was finally feeling free and she felt like some of the weight had been lifted from her trembling shoulders. She just smiled as she kept looking in the direction the woman had went.

'I don't even know her name.' was the only thought in her head now.

….


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello people :D here is the next chapter. I hope you guys like it. I had so much fun writing it.**

 **And thank you so much for all the great reviews. Really you guys turned my days into happy ones with your kind words. I think people around me have finally started to freak out because of the crazy smile I carry after reading the reviews :P thank u all again :D**

 **And have you guys heard about Callie and Arizona fight that will happen soon on Greys. I don't know what to think about it all. I'm so worried.**

… **..**

Mark was very anxious. He was scratching his beard with a worried expression. He was standing outside Callie's apartment as he prepared himself to knock. He didn't know what he would find. He had heard George saying that he had talked with Callie. That meant Callie knew. And he also mentioned Callie's exit. So he knew Callie must be heart broken. After all George had crushed her hopes once again. He wanted to tell her first so he could be there to comfort her, but his pager had interrupted him. And now he was sure Callie was either drunk as hell or would have cried herself to sleep. He was just thankful that the trauma was not a big one and he got out on time. So preparing himself, he took one last breath as he knocked on the door.

"Door's open." He heard a cheery reply. "Come right in Mark."

He just stood there with his mouth open. He looked to his left and right, then turned around and came face to face with his own door. He was at the right apartment. Then why did he hear happy talk. Hesitantly, he turned the knob and slowly opened the door. The lights in the lounge were off and that confirmed his suspicions and the happy voice was forgotten in an instant.

'I knew she was going to be devastated.' He thought feeling the situation normal again as he made his way in.

"Where are you? I am here and I have tequila." Mark bellowed.

"In the kitchen Mark. And I am feeling more like wine today." He heard a happy reply from the kitchen and he just stopped, shocked.

He had no idea what was going on. He gulped and started walking towards the kitchen that was brightly lit. And what his eyes landed on shocked him. Callie was wearing casual clothes, cutting vegetables with ear buds in as her head was bobbing up and down to whatever music there was playing. She was smiling and even humming a bit.

'What kind of a monster is this?' He thought.

He was used to handling a crying Callie, a drunk Callie or even a shouting Callie but this, he was not prepared for. He had never seen Callie act like this when she was depressed. He didn't know how to react or what to say. Maybe she was extremely depressed so much so that she became happy? He shook his weird thoughts away.

"How are you?" he asked carefully.

"Hungry. I got home later than expected and I wanted to eat something good. Thankfully this will be done soon. Stay and eat." She said still unaware of Mark's worry.

"I think the monster is going to pop out suddenly. I don't want to die." He mumbled a bit scared by the happy woman.

"What did you say?" Callie asked sweetly.

And Mark almost peed his pants. He was scared of this sweet Callie more than he had ever been of the angry Torres Latina. "I said I would love to eat." He replied in a weak voice.

In case of an angry Callie he knew what to expect, but now he didn't know what could happen. The possibilities were seriously endless. And that scared him to no ends.

"Then go ahead and sit down." she replied with a smile.

"I can get the plates and wine." He offered trying to push away whatever aggressive reaction Callie might have soon. Because this was not normal.

"Oh no. Don't worry about them. I will get them. You just sit and relax." Callie offered with another sweet smile.

Sickeningly sweet if you would ask Mark. He squirmed in his seat with all the tension his mind was feeling. Callie had all the food set in front of them in no time. And already had the first bite in her mouth when she noticed Mark staring at her in a weird manner.

"What?" she questioned. "Do I have something on my face?" she scrunched her eyebrows.

Mark resisted the strong urge to jump and hide behind the chair as he thought Callie was finally going to explode. "N… No, your face is perfect. As beautiful as it ever was." Mark replied with a shaking voice.

Callie looked at him like he had lost his mind. Then she suddenly remembered Mark's words.

"You said you wanted to talk. So what is it?" Mark almost choked on his own saliva at Callie's inquiry. His eyes almost popped out of their socket. He wasn't prepared for the sudden change in the topic.

"I… it's just… I wanted to know… actually did you talk… ughhh." Mark just couldn't get the words out, they were stuck in his throat.

"Mark Sloan! What is it? Spit it out." Callie demanded scaring Mark more than he already was.

"George said he told you about the engagement." Mark said as fast he could and then fixed his eyes on Callie waiting for the tiniest bit of reaction.

It took Callie a moment to realize what Mark had actually said. "Oh yeah! He did talk to me."

Callie looked mostly indifferent though there was a hint of sadness in her voice.

'Aha! Sadness. I can handle that.' Mark just jumped in happiness inside his head.

"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked waiting for the usual long rant to start.

"Nah! But I do want more wine." She replied.

'No talking but wine. She is trying to get drunk.' Mark thought making sure things were still normal.

"So more wine it is." Mark stated with a care filled smile.

A few minutes passed in silence as Callie was contemplating her words while mark was still staring at Callie waiting for anything and everything.

"Okay now you have to tell me. What is on my freaking face?" Callie asked irritated. "And don't say nothing because you have been staring at it since you came."

"It's not your face, it's you. All of you." Mark replied finally breaking under the stern gaze. "I was expecting tears and shouting and here you are cooking and smiling and dancing and happy and… and chirpy and I don't know what to think. And I am scared that you are so cool because either you have already killed O'Malley or you are planning to. Or maybe you have some detailed twisted plan to torture him." Callie quirked her eyebrow up at him, her face emotionless. And Mark immediately back tracked. "I will totally help you with whatever you have planned. I will even take the fall if the police finds out." he said in a hurry.

For a moment everything was silent and Callie had her eyes locked on Mark and looked angry as ever. Mark was playing with his hand and changing his sitting position every second so that if Callie plans on attacking, he can at least save his manhood. And then Callie suddenly burst out laughing, she couldn't control herself anymore.

"Oh my god! Your face." Callie said finally when she had calmed down.

"You are cruel woman." Mark whined after being scared by the sudden laughter. After all, he was so on edge.

"Mark relax. I am okay. Well as good as I can be expected to be." She smiled. She had a contemplative look on her face. She was wondering if she should tell Mark the events that followed George's confession.

"Okay so I am going to tell you something but you are not allowed to act like an ass that you are." Callie finally said.

"You flatter me Torres." Mark replied sarcastically.

And so Callie proceeded to explain the events of the day and Mark's expression changed from worry, sadness, heart break to shock, surprise and then finally settled on his trademark smirk.

"Wipe that thing off your face Sloan." Callie demanded.

"So you have a lesbian guardian angel." Mark finally said. "A hot blonde lesbian guardian angel who comes to make you smile." Mark teased completely ignoring Callie's words.

"I swear to god Mark I will kill…" her words were cut off by Mark again.

"So who is she? What's her name? Where does she live? And what happened between you two last night? And did she forgive you for kicking her out." Mark was full of questions and he was dying to know the whole story.

But Callie just kept quiet. In fact she looked sad. "I don't know anything Mark. She just said all those amazing things and gave me a kiss and just left." Callie replied lost in her own thoughts that she didn't realize the little information she had let slip.

"She kissed you!" Mark shouted.

"On the cheek Mark. On the cheek." Callie replied but the way she was being shy and the profuse blushing made Mark question the truth behind her statement.

"And a kiss on the cheek is making you blush so much?" Mark questioned suspiciously.

"It was just a kiss on the cheek Mark. But she just makes me shy and lose my ability to talk. Because I only recovered my ability to communicate when she was gone." Callie seemed frustrated with herself.

"Missing your mysterious lesbian lover already Torres." Mark teased again.

"Oh my god Mark! You are insufferable." Callie replied laughing.

And Mark was never gladder to hear Callie laugh. It had been quite some time since she had laughed. And he was thankful to that woman for finding and helping Callie and making her understand. If he ever met her he would make sure he expresses his gratitude. That woman really had been heaven sent because otherwise he didn't know how Callie would have survived the night. And he was sure Callie had developed a slight crush on the unknown woman.

….

"Arizona!" Teddy waved towards her, signing at her to come over.

Arizona got up and moved towards Teddy who was standing with a group of doctors. And then she realized what a great opportunity it was to get back at Teddy for teasing her about being kicked out.

So as she approached the group she immediately looked at Teddy with a big smile at her face and all color drained from Teddy's face because she knew whatever was about to happen was not going to be good.

"Theodora! How was your surgery?" she smiled sweetly at Teddy as she turned to look at the other doctors around who had their mouths hung open at the confession and introduced herself. "Hi! I am Arizona Robbins. Theodora's best friend."

Teddy had turned as red as a tomato. The rest of the doctors had caught up on the teasing and were laughing at the duo.

"Nice to meet you Arizona. I am Derek Sheppard. Theodora's colleague." One of the doctors replied with a playful smile. And Arizona started laughing.

Teddy immediately interjected. "Okay Arizona we should go. I already made you wait for quite a while." Teddy didn't wait for a reply and started dragging Arizona along with her.

"I think I am really going to like you Derek." Arizona said loudly as she was being dragged away. "It was nice to meet you all."

"I hate you." Teddy muttered as she kept on dragging Arizona. And Arizona couldn't stop laughing.

"Revenge is a dish best served cold." She replied with a wink.

Soon both friends reached Joe's and ordered burgers and drinks. They were laughing and joking; just enjoying each other's company as always. But Arizona couldn't get the image of a crying Calliope out of her mind. She was still worried about her. But that was the problem. Why did she care about the woman so much? Usually she would have left a woman if they had shown even the slightest hint of any kind of serious baggage or relationship drama. But she couldn't let Calliope go. Teddy noticed her lost gaze.

"Where did you go?" she asked snapping her fingers in front of Arizona's eyes.

"I was thinking about the woman I met last night." Arizona said still not totally out of her brain. Because if she would have been completely mentally present, she would have never admitted that.

"Aww. Is your ego still bruised?" Teddy teased but seeing the serious look on her friend's eye she realized something was wrong.

"What is it?" she questioned.

Arizona thought for a moment, was she allowed to share another person's story with Teddy. She wouldn't have ever thought this if it would have been someone else. But apparently she respected this particular woman too much.

"I met her again when I was coming to the hospital. She was quite stressed. So I just talked with her and like sort of supported her. And then I left. I didn't wait for her to reply and I think she was too lost in the moment to even reply." Arizona simply explained, not giving any details.

Teddy knew Arizona had omitted stuff and that showed that Arizona cared about the woman and that was not Arizona like. She usually took a lot of time with people. She could also see the worry in her eyes.

"She will be fine. Nobody can stay unaffected after a Robbins speech." Teddy tried to cheer her friend and it worked as she started laughing.

And the rest of the time was spent laughing and joking.

…..

Callie was at a bar she had never been to before, drinking her weight in alcohol. It was dimly lit, with a dark ambiance. It suited Callie's current mood so she didn't really mind. She was sitting on a stool on the extreme left, away from most people yet near the source of alcohol. To the eyes of a stranger she looked like a beauty in distraught, a beautiful body with a troubled soul but to her own self she seemed like a mess that people would want to stay away from at all costs. She saw herself as an unattractive woman without any charm. Many heads had turned in her direction, their gazes full of admiration and lust, but to her disheartened mind the turning of heads meant that they wanted to see the show of the woman who had lost in life.

But there was a very great thing about being in that place no matter what people thought about her. The bartender didn't know her, the patrons sitting around didn't recognize her. No one was looking at her with eyes full of hatred and accusation. Her friends weren't around to worry about her state, so she didn't have to pretend to be okay for their sake. She didn't have to smile politely at the patients, when inside she was crying and breaking apart. She didn't have to create dams and stop her tears from flooding her eyes or overflying. She didn't have to be the strong, responsible Callie Torres. Here, she was just a random woman with problems, drinking away the night instead of trying to change her life and taking control of things. Here, she was a no one and nothing. She was just another average person. Not someone special. She never knew being nothing could be this freeing.

But her misery party was interrupted by the bartender pushing a drink in her direction.

"It's for you lady." He simply stated while Callie looked at him with a tear stained, confused face. But he completely ignored her and got back to work.

"Men ignoring me seems like a trend." She said under her breath as she felt a new wave of tears approaching.

"You just… you look upset." She heard a sweet feminine voice behind her that actually startled her for a moment.

She didn't turn around because she knew she must look like a mess, with her face filled with blotches of dried tears and a continuous stream of the fresh ones. She hoped beyond hope that the person would leave due to lack of response from her.

"So I thought, a colorful happy drink might cheer you up." the sentence was followed by cute giggling sounds.

She cursed the world for ruining her solace. Then she roughly used her sleeves to wipe her tears as she turned around. The sight that she was met with was not a bad one, quite the opposite in fact. But she was too drunk and depressed to think about that. Her mind took some time to catchup and her eyes finally focused on the beautiful form in front of her. The woman had blonde hair, hung around her face in gentle waves. She had a big smile on her face showing off her dimples. She looked hopefully at Callie as she moved the drink closer to her.

"I have been looking at you since you came in, and I noticed that you were…" the other woman started but Callie was quick to cut her off.

"Do I know you?" Callie asked with a little edge in her voice but for the most part she sounded confused.

"No. It's just… I saw you the moment you came in. And I wasn't the only one. You turned many heads when you walked in. You are a very beautiful woman." The woman clarified immediately. "I just thought I could get the honor of seeing your breath taking smile if I tried." the woman added with a wink.

Callie knew it was a lie. She wasn't someone whose presence turned heads. She was the woman people rejected. And this woman was flirting with her so in Callie's mind that only meant one thing; the other woman was out to have some fun and when she saw Callie she thought she could easily score with her in her vulnerable state. Because otherwise she wasn't beautiful enough to capture anyone's attention.

"So what, you have been enjoying the sad pity life of the strange woman. You think I am a charity case or something." Callie said in anger but her voice sounded so small.

It was her defensive instincts kicking in. she thought she would be left alone here and people wouldn't bother her. And she was feeling very vulnerable all of a sudden so shouting at the woman seemed like the logical response that would send her away.

"No. not at all. You are taking it all in a very wrong way." The other woman immediately started clarifying. But then something changed in her stance. "You know what! Forget it. I'm sorry I tried to cheer you up." the woman replied with a straight face as she turned around with extreme grace and left.

And so Callie was left alone once again. But she felt sad. Shouldn't she feel relieved at finally being alone again? But it seemed like she felt a bit too alone now. She turned around and moved her eyes around trying to locate the woman. She finally saw her sitting in a both at the back with a drink in her hand while her mind seemed somewhere else. She had a frown on her face. For a moment Callie felt bad for treating her like that when she was just trying to be nice. But soon she was lost in her own thoughts as the drinks flowed and she began crying again lost in her own misery.

Callie was in the bathroom, washing her face, trying to sober up when a group of girls entered the bathroom. They were laughing and joking and that irritated Callie. She was here to get away from all of this perkiness. One of the girls looked at her and Callie felt very nervous all of a sudden. They were all so dressed up and beautiful and she felt so self-conscious and worthless. So she just turned and entered the nearest stall, avoiding all sorts of interaction.

"Did you see the hot blonde at the back? The one in the white shirt." She heard one of them say.

"I totally did. And that hot piece of ass is going to spend the night with Me." she heard another girl reply in a sassy tone.

Callie has a suspicion that they were talking about the same blonde who had approached her.

"But I saw her approach this broody woman at the bar." she heard again.

"It doesn't really matter. Have you seen me? What I want, I get." She heard the feisty sounding girl reply again with a laugh.

And her blood boiled in anger and hatred, and she had no specific reason for the hostile feelings. The other girl seemed so confident about herself. She knew what she wanted and was ready to go get it. But Callie felt the complete opposite. Once she was just like that girl, going for what she want. But O'Malley had ruined her sense of self-worth. And she felt jealous. She felt jealous because of the confidence, the grace, the beauty, the style, the guts and the assertiveness the other girl possessed.

"I never knew a girl like Izzie would be interested in me." O'Malley's words echoed in her brain.

He had said himself how Izzie was in a whole new league of people; beyond beautiful and great. And Callie could never compete with her.

"She looks like she will be great in bed." her inner monologue was broken by the girl's voice again. And then she heard laughing.

And the laughter broke something in her. Suddenly, she wanted to make a point. She wanted to prove her worth. She wanted to prove that she was a sexy, beautiful and very desirable woman. She wanted to make the other girl feel like she was feeling. She wanted her to know the pain of rejection. Or maybe she wanted to feel attractive and desirable, even if it was for a night; to know that someone would still chose her over others. She didn't want another girl to be chosen over her. So, she took the challenge and decided to get to the blonde woman before the other girl did. For once in her life, she decided to be selfish and do things just for herself and not care about the consequences.

When she finally came out, she saw the other girl standing next to her blonde target. She had fixed her makeup and was ready to act. But then she heard the blonde woman laugh in such an adorable way that her confidence faltered. Why would such a beautiful person even look at her? And she turned around and sat on her stool.

'Why am I giving up? What am I scared of?' she thought.

The alcohol had lowered her inhibitions otherwise she would have never even thought about doing such a thing let alone get ready to fight for another woman. But the problem was that she didn't know how to approach the blonde. The other girl was already sitting with her now. So she took a page out of the blonde's book and ordered the same pink drink and sent it to her. But to her dismay, the woman looked at the drink, turned around looked at her when the server pointed in the direction and then just turned around and started talking with the other girl again.

'She didn't even give me a smile.' Callie thought with a pout.

She felt a stab in her heart. This was supposed to go her way and make her feel better. But here she was being rejected again. But maybe it was because of how rude she had been. She ordered a few more shots to drown the bubbling heartache.

She wasn't going to give up or let's just say that her alcohol filled brain wouldn't let her give up. Callie looked over towards the blonde's table and saw that the other girl had her hand on the blonde's arm. And suddenly she felt jealous. There was no logical explanation except her need to possess the attention of a human, whom someone else wanted. So after the shots she sent another drink over to the blonde but this time followed the server to the booth. As the glass was placed in front of the woman, she looked puzzled but before she could question Callie started speaking in a slurry intoxicated manner.

"I'm sorry. You were trying to be nice and I got angry." Callie batted her eye lashes for good measure but in her drunken state it looked more funny and cute than sexy.

"You gave me a pink drink. But this is white. The one I am giving you now. The last one was pink." Callie had a whole speech prepared in her head about the color of drinks but now it was stuck in her throat and wasn't coming out. All the words were so jumbled up in her head.

"There was a reason. I swear, for the colors. I just forgot it." Callie said with a frustrated sigh and a pout. She looked so serious about it all that it made the blonde smile.

"Why don't you sit down and then think about It." the blonde woman's reply brought Callie out of her serious drunk thinking phase. "And it's okay." the woman added as a response to her apology.

Callie gave a secret sly smile to the other girl as she started to sit. But in reality it was not very well concealed and made the blonde woman laugh. Callie stopped in the middle of her sitting process as she looked at the freely laughing blonde. She was laughing like she had no worry or care and it sounded beautiful.

The other girl looked angry and gave Callie a little nudge that made Callie unstable because of the weird pose she was frozen in. The blonde woman immediately caught Callie, preventing her from falling and helped Callie sit next to her; a supporting arm around her waist all the time. Callie couldn't help but smile victoriously at the other girl who was fuming by now. Callie took her time adjusting her position, 'trying to find the most comfy spot' were the words she used as a justification that made the blonde laugh again.

"My name is Calliope." Callie started talking once she was comfortable on her seat. This made the other girl laugh.

"Wow! You parents must hate you if they named you that." she said in a disrespecting tone.

Before Callie could retaliate the blonde woman spoke up.

"I think that's a beautiful name." she said sweetly looking at Callie. "And if you have a problem, I suggest that you leave." She said this looking at the other girl who got up saying God knows what and left.

"I'm sorry for that." Arizona replied looking at Callie.

Callie on the other hand was busy staring at the blonde. "You have really beautiful eyes. They are so blue. How do you make them so blue?"

Callie's drunken ramblings made Arizona laugh again.

"Thank you very much." she replied with a smile.

"You have to turn the white into pink!" Callie suddenly exclaimed loudly, getting the attention of many people.

"What?" now the blonde woman was confused.

"The drinks." Callie replied with a happy smile like she had remembered where she had buried some treasure. "Pink is happy. White is sad. You have to make white happy. Like make it pink."

Callie looked so proud for remembering that information. The adorable antics of Callie made the other woman smile at her fondly.

"I'm white. Just so you know. Because I am sad." Callie added and then suddenly raised her hand and moved it to the blonde's cheek. "You have so cute dimples. I wish I had dimples too." She said while her fingers kept on caressing them.

This made the blonde woman blush and she lowered her head a bit. She was enjoying Callie's antics but the sudden compliments that came in, were said with such truthfulness that it made her shy. It seemed like Callie was fascinated by her.

"You are already a heart breaker with all the beauty that you possess. You don't need dimples at all." The blonde replied sincerely.

And soon they were lost talking, which mostly involved Callie's drunk ramblings as she tried to impress the blonde. And the blonde's laughter at Callie's adorable behavior. Callie had genuinely enjoyed her time and had laughed more than she had in quite some time. Throughout the conversation she had flirted and complimented the blonde a lot. She was totally fascinated by the woman's beauty.

…

Arizona Robbins had come in the bar with the idea of a fun night with a beautiful woman. But now talking to Calliope had made her fond of the woman. She knew that calliope was a surgeon and a few other details. But mostly they were talking about general stuff and not themselves. The whole exchange had actually made Arizona respect the woman and she didn't want to take advantage of her in her drunk state. So she finally decided to say good bye.

"Here is my number." Arizona said handing Calliope's phone back. "It's getting late. I think I should go." She added in a regretful tone.

This made Calliope pout. "We ca go to my place." She suggested.

This made Arizona groan. She was already having a hard time being noble and respectable. The other woman was beyond beautiful and saying no required a lot of effort.

"Calliope you are drunk. I would love to go to your place but only when you are sober. I just don't want you to regret anything." she tried to reason.

"So what? You think I make regrettable decisions." Callie's defensive side bubbled again and she lashed out.

"Calliope that's not what i…" Arizona tried to talk but Callie cut her again.

"Or do you think I am not good enough. Were you just messing with me?"

Arizona was now getting angry because of all the accusations but she knew it was useless to fight with a drunk person so she got up before she lost her cool. Seeing her stand effectively stopped Callie.

"Goodbye Calliope. Give me a call soon. I would love to meet you again. But I am not doing anything while you are drunk." She said as she started walking towards the door and finally left the bar.

….

Callie was brought out of the shock when she heard the door close. She suddenly felt like she had lost something but didn't know what it was. Before the feeling could consume her she immediately got up, stumbling and ran out after the blonde woman.

Callie saw her walking away and ran after her. "Hey stop. Listen." Callie shouted.

The other woman stopped and turned around like she was expecting this to happen. Callie stumbled towards her as her tears started falling.

"Hey. Hey what's wrong?" the woman asked, noticing Callie's distraught state. She had been fine when she left.

But Callie started sobbing loudly and fell in the arms of the blonde who hugged her tightly. She tried to talk but she choked on her own words and ended up coughing and crying even more badly.

"Hey shhh. It's okay. It's okay." the woman comforted her as she hugged her more tightly. "You don't have to say anything."

The blonde had no clue how the woman had turned into this mess within seconds or what had happened to hurt her this much. All she knew was that seeing the tears falling from the woman's eyes was effecting her more than they should.

"Where do you live? Let me take you home." the woman finally said after the crying had settled down a bit.

So she walked with Callie, following her directions. Her arm was protectively wrapped around the sniffling woman, whose head was resting on her shoulder. She was surprised by her own offer and the need to protect she felt for this woman she had just met a few hours ago.

…

Callie suddenly woke up with a start. She immediately sat up in her bed, he eyes open wide ready to pop out.

"Oh shit." She cursed loudly. "I'm a bitch."

She immediately picked her phone up and dialed her best friend's number.

"Mark! Her name is Arizona." She said frantically. "And it looks like I was the one who took advantage of her."

…..


	4. Chapter 4

**Okay so I am finally back, after God knows how long. And I am really sorry for being so late. But let's just say that my work and studies just overburdened me more than I expected. Trust me ARCHITECTURE kills! So, apologies for that. really really REALLY huge sorry for that. (Imagine an apology cake and a card. A really cute card.)**

 **Thank you for all your continued reviews and encouragements. I can't thank you all enough. And I hope you all are still around and want to read. Hope you guys love this chapter. I will try to upload the next chapter as soon as possible and no I wouldn't disappear this time . Happy Reading. And do review. And a HUGE sorry again.**

 **PREVIOUS CHAPTERS: Callie kicked Arizona out thinking ahe took advantage of Callie. Turns out it was Callie who initiated everything. While somehow Arizona always finds Callie when she is depressed. And she helped Callie come to terms with the news of George proposing Izzie.**

 **Let's see what's in store for them. Happy reading.**

…..

"Dr. Kinley had a heart attack last night." Richard Webber stated in a booming voice as he was leading the attending's meeting, like he did every morning. On one hand the news evoked some gasps and sad expressions, but on the other hand it left a lot of people with confused expressions because they didn't know who he actually was.

"He died early in the morning today." Richard Webber continued but now his voice was more somber and held respect for the deceased.

Though Callie for the life of her could not remember who this guy was, still sat with a sad expression, trying to act like she was really sad for the talented departed soul. Her head was bowed down so as to show respect and so that no one would look at her as well. Being the chief resident she had to sit in these meetings while most of her colleagues were trying to get into surgeries and cramming patient's charts outside.

"He was one of the senior most doctors here. He had done ground breaking research in his field over the time that he served here. He trained great doctors who then went ahead to achieve great things." Webber went on with his speech.

Callie nodded her head eagerly as to agree with Webber's statement while she tried to think harder about the surgeon under discussion, trying to remember who he was.

"His research about…"

"Psssssstt." Callie's concentration on Webber's words was broken by none other than Mark Sloan who was sitting to her left.

Callie ignored Mark's attempt at a conversation and kept on looking towards the chief of surgery.

"Hey Cal!" He whispered in the lowest volume he could manage which truly wasn't all that low.

Callie just gave him a stern gaze and returned her attention back to the words being said but Mark had other plans as he hit her with his foot under the table.

"Ouch." Callie yelped out loud in surprise which resulted in the whole room being engulfed in silence followed by every occupant turning around and focusing their attention on her. Her face immediately turned red and a sheepish expression took over her face.

"Sorry. It was just… sorry" She didn't have any excuse so she just apologized again under Webber's stern gaze and moved her chair more to the right; away from Mark. She would definitely kill him after the meeting was over, right now there were too many witnesses. Plus she hadn't changed into her scrubs yet and she didn't want blood all over her clothes. They were expensive clothes.

"So as I was saying before, he was a man of great talen…" Webber was back to honoring the memory and accomplishments of Dr. Kinley.

"Callie." Mark called again in his not so quiet voice. Apparently Callie moving her seat away wasn't enough of a hint for him to shut his big mouth.

"What is it?" Callie hissed back trying to get him off her back.

"Who is the chief talking about?" he asked again, trying to be discrete by placing a hand on his mouth.

"I don't know who he is Mark." Callie replied through clenched teeth.

"Then why are you nodding and have that face… the sad I'm sorry face." Mark asked confused.

"Because I am being polite Mark." Callie replied, rolling her eyes.

But shockingly she received no reply. She tried to resist the urge to turn around and see why Mark was not replying but her curiosity got the best of her and she made a complete 180 degrees turn. And her eyes landed on Mark's face which was contoured into a weird expression.

"Are you okay? You look sick." Callie asked getting worried about the nauseous look he had on his face.

"I'm doing you." Mark replied, his features still stuck on the weird expression.

"What?" Callie almost shouted again.

"I mean I am copying your expression. The raised eye brow thing that you do." Mark explained immediately, still trying to get one of his eyebrow to go higher than the other. "You know the one you do when you are mocking someone, like when you say 'really?' with your face."

And as a reply he was met with the exact same expression taking over Callie's face.

"Mark I don't look like I am about to throw up." Callie replied. She didn't realize when they started having a full blown conversation when that was exactly what she was trying to avoid.

"Oh your throwing up face is way weirder than anything I have ever seen." Mark teased. "No one can copy that."

Callie tried her best to control herself and ignore whatever Mark was saying.

"I don't know how you do it but you change colors when you are about to throw up." Mark continued.

This made Callie whip her head at a startling speed and give him the sternest glare she could manage.

"Oh! The Torres glare." Mark commented. Apparently he had named every expression she had, he was her best friend after all.

"Mark!" Callie shouted out of frustration and then history repeated itself. All eyes were on her again as the room went silent.

"I… well… I am…" Callie was trying to talk but words were failing her. She was never a fan of public speaking and the number of eyes on her made her feel like she was about to give a speech.

"Dr. Torres didn't you have an early consult?" Mark suddenly said from behind her, giving her an out.

"Uhh… yes. A consult. I have to go for the consult. That I have… right now. Because… it's an early consult. Early because the…" she rambled on as she got up from her chair and made her way towards the door. She was finally released from her misery by Webber breaking off her ramblings.

"We get it Doctor Torres."

And then she left the room as fast as she could, towards her freedom. She didn't want to be embarrassed more than she already was. Thankfully embarrassment wasn't fatal otherwise she would have been dead.

…..

The meeting continued without Callie with Webber addressing the rest of the doctors, discussing one topic after another. After paying his respects to Kinley, he explained about some new budget cuts from some departments that started a whole new debate. Finally after listening to all the department heads, he suggested that he would reconsider some stuff and come up with an improved plan. Mark was not pleased at all, with how things were going. According to Webber's current plan, his department was going to suffer the worst blunt of the budget cuts. After Callie's departure he had taken up talking to the person on his other side, who was none other than Derek Shepherd. And just like Callie, Derek had no option but to listen and participate in the conversation.

"This day sucks." He whispered.

"It isn't so bad Mark. And the day has just literally started, you don't know what's waiting for you outside these doors." Derek replied with a smirk on his face.

"You would say that. Your department isn't the one in line for suffering budget cuts." Mark complained.

"Chief said he would review it all again. And really, who knows what the day holds for you. Maybe it has a great surprise planned for you." Derek encouraged Mark with a wink.

Before Mark could complain more, a knock was heard on the door. Webber smiled at the occupants and interrupted the head of cardio from the list of budget requirements he was explaining. He started making his way to the door and gently opened it.

"Doctor Robbins. Please come in." He said, still smiling at the blonde beauty who entered the room.

Mark looked at Derek in shock and then a smirk covered his face.

"You were right my man. The day just got sexier." He said as his eyes roamed the figure of perfection in front of him.

Derek just shook his head in amusement. He remembered the woman as Teddy's friend from the day before.

"Please welcome doctor Robbins. She will be taking over as the new head of pediatric surgery. She was going to join us after a month when Dr. Kinley was going to retire. But due to the tragic event that occurred last night, I asked doctors Robbins if she could start earlier. And she agreed to it, without even wasting a single day. Now that is dedication." Webber proudly stated as Arizona's cheeks turned slightly red.

She was planning on enjoying the month she had as a free human and using that time to properly settle in the new city. But then Webber called her earlier today. She kind of felt guilty because of the fact that she was excited that she could start work soon; keeping in mind the fact that someone had died for her to get the job early. She had eagerly replied that she would start today so that she can get acquainted with the patients and the staff. And she had also explained how she didn't want the tiny humans to suffer because of the tragic event.

"Thank you doctor Webber. And truly it's a pleasure to be a part of a hospital which has such great and accomplished surgeons." Arizona stated as she looked around the room, scanning the faces of all the surgeons which included her best friend; all of them giving her their best smiles.

'Some flattering words never hurt anyone.' She thought.

Webber directed her to take a seat, and she moved to sit next to Mark on the empty seat which had been occupied by Callie, earlier. Mark had his gaze trained on her the whole time; smiling. The meeting continued again and Arizona couldn't help but notice the creepy glances that the guy sitting next to her was throwing her way every so often. She spotted Teddy on the opposite side of the room and pointed towards Mark with a slight movement of her head trying to ask what the deal with him was. Teddy locked her eyes on Mark who was still busy ogling Arizona. That was typical Mark. She just rolled her eyes which was enough for Arizona to realize what the guy next to her was like.

When the meeting was over. Everyone started getting up and as Mark wasn't paying attention to the things being discussed; he was brought out of his thoughts by the screeching of chairs and the shuffling of people that followed it. Arizona and Teddy were one of the first ones to leave.

"So, excited?" Teddy asked as they made their way to the nearest coffee cart.

"Yup. Totally." Arizona answered with a huge smile. "I had really started to miss work. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy free time, but I enjoy the sanitized smell of an OR even more." She added with a wink.

"I see." Teddy answered with a laugh. "I was also getting tired of seeing your face all the time."

Arizona put her hand on her heart, exaggerating her feelings of hurt.

"I have a beautiful face." Arizona replied continuing the friendly banter.

"Oh yeah. That's why Mark Sloan couldn't stop looking at it." Teddy recalled with mischief.

They were now at the coffee cart. They gave their order. Arizona paying extra attention to the girl behind the cart and being extra nice. Teddy just rolled her eyes at her antics and the conversation continued again.

"Mark? The guy who was staring at me?" Arizona asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Mhmm." Teddy replied with a nod.

"What is up with him?" Arizona asked.

"Head of plastics, great at his job but a man whore. So, simply stating, he is the male you." Teddy simply summed up.

Arizona started laughing at this information.

"And from the looks of it he wants in your pants." Teddy continued.

Arizona scrunched up her face in disgust at this.

"Eww. Well someone needs to tell him that he has no chance here."

…..

Mark looked around in the conference room, among the bulk of people trying to find their way out while juggling the loads of files they were carrying in their hands. He was trying to find the blonde bombshell he had his eyes on earlier but he came up empty. Apparently she had left early trying to avoid the horde of people that would engulf anyone who was unlucky enough to be a few seconds late in packing their stuff and exiting.

"And here I thought you were heartbroken over Lexie." Derek's voice brought him out of his search mission.

He was standing next to Mark's chair with an amused smile. Mark's smile fell at the mention of Lexie's name but he recovered immediately; the smirk adorning his face again. But Derek had seen the distress no matter how short lived it was and immediately felt guilty about his words even though they were meant for nothing but teasing. But before he could beat himself up about it, he saw Mark's eyes light up and a huge smile cover his face.

"I just had a great idea about how to get Lexie back." Mark exclaimed.

By this point it was only the two of them left in the room, everyone else had finally made it out.

"Oh boy!" was the only response that Derek could think of that might do justice to the declaration he had just heard.

Because over the years, he had firsthand knowledge of how crazy Mark's so called great ideas could get. He had more than a handful of past experiences where things had ended way worse than anyone could have predicted or imagined. So being scared and worried was the most comprehendible response.

"Trust me. It is really great. Not like the previous ones. It's going to work like a charm." Mark paused to create suspense and highlight the importance of what was yet to come; his eyes filled with mirth. "I'm going to ask her out."

"Who? Lexie?" Derek questioned. If this was his plan, then it was by far the best among his long line of ridiculous so called great ideas that had all failed miserably.

"No! Obviously not Lexie." Mark exclaimed looking at Derek like he had lost his mind.

"Obviously." Derek said in a monotone voice. He should have known that it wasn't going to be this easy and reasonable.

"Doctor Robbins. I am going to ask Doctor Robbins out. And keeping in mind my great looks, sex appeal and the Sloan charm that I possess, she is obviously going to say yes. Because no one can resist this." Mark explained, pointing his hands towards his body. "And she is hot and I am hot so we are going to look extra hot together. And that would make Lexie jealous to no end and then we will be back together in no time." Mark finished explaining his whole plan with a huge smile on his face and Derek couldn't find it in himself to outright tell him how crazy he sounded. So Derek took the indirect route to make Mark understand the huge flashing errors in his plan.

"So, instead of talking to Lexie and discussing your issues in an attempt to find a solution; you are going to try and make her jealous. And that is how you think you will get back together?" Derek asked trying to make things as simple as he could.

"Yes. Yes I am. That is exactly what I am going to do." Mark replied as he stood up and patted Derek's shoulder. "I knew you would understand. Now let's go and find my soon to be date." Mark said with a huge smile and turned around, making his way towards the door.

He was immediately followed by Derek who was shaking his head, wondering if his best friend would ever grow up. But to be honest, he was actually looking forward and might he dare add excited to see how this plan of Mark's would blow up. At least there wasn't a chance of any huge fight or problem in this plan. It seemed harmless so he wasn't worried. He hoped he was right.

…..

"Hello ladies." Mark greeted as he reached the two best friends, walking down the corridor.

He was being closely followed by Derek who smiled at the duo offering his own greetings.

"Hello. It is very nice to see you Theodora's best friend." Derek teased.

This made Teddy glare at him while Arizona chuckled next to her. Before Teddy could reply Arizona spoke up.

"The pleasure is all mine Theodora's colleague." Arizona said with a smirk making sure to put extra emphasis on the name.

Teddy was irritated and embarrassed and was turning red by the minute, while Arizona and Derek were laughing at Teddy's expense. Mark on the other hand stood there with a confused expression.

"Who's Theodora?" He asked still not understanding what was going on.

Derek had his mouth open, about to respond when Teddy cut in.

"Don't we have a surgery scheduled Dr. Shepherd. We should get going." And with that she turned around. Derek would have followed Teddy but his eyes had caught sight of Arizona's face which had a mischievous look on it as she looked at Mark, so he stopped.

"And you are the one and only Mark Sloan. Am I right?" Arizona stated looking at the man directly in the eye. Mark smirked at this. It looked like the woman already knew about him and she sounded impressed to Mark. So he thought his work here would be easier than he imagined. Not that he thought it would be much difficult anyway. He attracted the opposite sex like a magnet.

"Teddy was just telling me about you." Arizona added in a sweet voice.

Now it was Teddy's turn to stop and stare at Arizona. Because truthfully she hadn't said many good things about the man. So she was scared of what would come out of her friend's mouth next. Derek on the other hand was just amused by the whole scenario. Keeping in mind his small interaction with Arizona the other day, he knew this was going to be hilarious.

"Oh! So you were talking about me. That's not so surprising. Most women here talk about me." The man bragged with a clear hint of superiority and flirtiness in his voice.

"Mhmm. Yeah we were. After I asked her about the weird old guy who was sitting next to me and kept staring at me with a creepy smile stuck to his face." Arizona said with a straight face and the utmost seriousness.

The smirk on Mark's face fell. While Derek and Teddy started laughing loudly at Arizona's antics.

Arizona just wanted enjoy her first day and wanted to make her stance clear but apparently the plastic surgeon was very stubborn. He recovered quickly and the smile was back on his face.

"Well I hope Teddy would have cleared away all your doubts. And would have told you how great I am. She has firsthand experience after all." He said while throwing a wink towards Teddy, who was a whole new shade of red.

"Because I would like to ask you out."

"Oh yeah she told me a lot about you. I think the word she used was man whore." Arizona answered, as she acted like she was trying to think real hard.

"Yup that's all she said." Arizona stated. "And no I am not interested at all. Thank you so much for asking though. I am super flattered. Super."

She gave Mark and exaggerated smile and turned around and left a shocked Mark Sloan, an embarrassed Teddy and a very amused Derek. This had turned out to be way more fun than he had expected.

…

The hospital's cafe was filled with hustle and bustle of the people. Nurses, interns, residents and attendings; all alike, busy in gossiping, backbiting and going crazy over one news or another. Then there was the occasional sound of pager going off here and there. The food at the tables was as usual being ignored as the occupants of the area were too busy conversing or maybe they just didn't care enough about the tasteless and abnormal looking food of the cafeteria. Callie observed all this commotion from the door of the hospital cafeteria. A place where she had been rooted to for the past 10 minutes. This all felt so normal, something she was so used to but yet she found herself scared to take the step required to fully enter the socializing hub of the hospital. She knew that as soon as she entered, eyes were going to follow her, those who weren't already gossiping about her were going to change their topics to one 'Callie Torres' immediately. And then there would be the overflow of pitiful eyes, staring at her and haunting her. But as she looked around she found the table that was usually occupied by her very loud friends and today was no exception. That is when she suddenly realized she wouldn't be alone. She had people in her corner. She had a whole family of dysfunctional relationships in this mess who adored her and supported her no matter what and who would do anything and cross any boundaries required to protect her. With this new found strength she raised her foot up to take the step she had been dreading but then the very next second realized that she was still very scared. Actually she was ashamed of herself and the clown show she had let her life turn into. But before she could berate herself a blonde haired beautiful dimpled stranger's words came back to her mind.

"It's not on me, it's on him." She said under her breath.

But she couldn't stop her brain from straying from the topic and her mind wandered to the events that took place after similar words were said to her, particularly the kiss she received on her cheek and she couldn't help the smile and blush that covered her face. And before she knew it, she was making her way towards the table that consisted of her support system.

"Hey. What's up?" She greeted as she got near the table and sat down.

She hoped her blush wasn't too obvious but she realized that the people at the table were too busy with something else or some other topic to make such an observation. She noticed the angry look on Bailey's face, a pouting Mark, snickering Derek and Teddy and the very amused look on Owen's face.

"Nothing much. Just Mark and Bailey complaining." Derek replied and other than the two mentioned people, everyone started laughing. She just stared at Mark and then Bailey trying to figure out what might have happened but came up empty. And a part of her didn't care what all the commotion was about. She rather wanted to enjoy the normalcy it brought and enjoy the feeling of not being the center of every conversation. So that is what she did as she started eating her salad. Her hand drifted towards the phone in her pocket on its own accord. She unlocked the screen and found herself face to face with her contact list after a couple of taps on the screen. Particularly the name Arizona was what her vision was focused on. The memories of that wretched night had brought to her attention the fact that she had the blonde's number but she didn't know what to do with it. Should she call or text? Should she thank her or apologize? Should she tell her that she was not gay or interested? Or should she just ignore this all and forget it all ever happened? The last option was proving itself to be the most tempting.

"I am telling the truth. I damn right deserve to complain. That woman is an imbecile. Changing things, challenging decisions, talking non-stop, smiling like everything good in the world is happening to her and then that damn skating around like 5 year olds. She is crazy and Webber doesn't want to do anything about it." Bailey's rant brought Callie out of her little confusion fest.

She hadn't heard Bailey say so many bad things about a person ever.

In fact she hadn't seen Bailey this frustrated ever. She had seen Bailey get angry but never frustrated. Before she could enquire about this person that had pushed Bailey over the edge a disheartened looking Mark Sloan started speaking.

"She is crazy for sure. I mean look at me. Who rejects me? I am the golden boy of this hospital. And man whore. She called me a man whore." He said with a lost look in his eyes.

"Well that is the only thing she is right about." Bailey quipped in and it resulted in everyone laughing as Mark just sat there pouting and trying to glare at Bailey simultaneously.

Callie was very amused by this conversation. Her phone long forgotten. Amusement was adorning her face. And she was intrigued.

"Who is this woman that we hate?" Callie asked with utmost interest.

"I actually like her." Derek said with a smile.

"And I love her. She is my best friend." Teddy quipped from her seat beside Derek.

"And I don't hate her. In fact I don't know much about her. She seems nice though." Owen said from his seat next to Teddy.

"She is a crazy child trying to treat other children. She is a disaster waiting to happen." Miranda said from her seat eyeing the other 3 attendings with distaste while Mark was nodding his head in agreement next to Callie. She couldn't help but let out a laugh at her friends' antics. It was nice to be surrounded by them no matter how crazy they themselves were.

"Okay Mark I need more info. Use words." Callie said turning towards her best friend.

"Doctor Robbins. The new head of pediatric surgery. Blonde, sexy with a killer smile, great boobs too." Mark gave out the basic details; the pout being replaced with a smirk near the end of his sentence.

This made Callie zone out to her own lesbian blonde sexy angel. But before she could think much about that, Mark yanked her by the arm.

"Let's go. I will introduce you to her. And we can tell her together how right Bailey is."

This statement made Bailey smile all of a sudden but the next moment her face was totally neutral again. And with that last observation she was dragged out of the cafe by an insistent ego-bruised Mark Sloan.

The halls of the hospital were rapidly passing by them, an excited Mark almost shoving people out of his way in a hurry to get to his destination. Callie was being dragged all around in that extremely fast pace with Mark's hand securely wrapped around her wrist.

The people that Mark was successfully dodging, turned left and right and ended up crashing into an overwhelmed and vision blocked Callie. Every time a person would crash with her, she would end up feeling the tug on her wrist that was handcuffed in a way. She tried to avoid people to the best of her capabilities but as she was behind Mark, she couldn't see past his massive figure but even then if she tried to look from the sides, she failed miserably as Mark was moving at a very fast pace and she couldn't see the next obstacle fast enough.

She felt like a character of a video game trying to avoid obstacles as she kept on running around a selected course. But if it were a game, then she would be the worst player possible who would fail to avoid every single obstacle not scoring even a single point. Thankfully, she was a surgeon and not a character in a game.

'I would royally suck at that game.' She thought.

She was about to ask Mark to slow down but before she could do anything she collided into something hard; nose first.

"Ouch!" She suddenly shouted holding her nose as the world spun around her due to the sudden impact and the pain that was coursing through her.

She bounced backwards because of the impact but that caused the wrist that was in Mark's hand to jerk back suddenly and it finally slipped out of Mark's grip with a stroke of bad luck. Because she ended up stumbling backwards, unable to find her balance and ended up falling on a supply cart behind her, sending all the equipment flying around with loud clanks and thunks.

"Shhhhh keep it down." Mark hissed out in a surprisingly low voice. Apparently the guy actually had a low volume button.

As Mark turned around he saw Callie holding her nose, with tears floating in her eyes, lying on the floor with her limbs spread all around. He knew she had collided with his back and he had felt something pointy but didn't realize what it was or how bad it was for the other person.

"What the hell Mark." Callie continued, the volume of her voice still on the higher side. Her hand was still on her nose, but the world had started to stop spinning finally. Her back was stinging from where it had hit the cart but most of all, it was her self-respect that had taken a fall. She wished for the floor to just open up beneath her and swallow her whole. She could hear some people laughing and snickering. All eyes were on her and her cheeks were changing colors rapidly.

"Oh my god! I am so sorry." Mark suddenly exclaimed as he bent down to help his friend.

Callie could feel her blood boiling, her hands were shaking in anger. All the embarrassment had found anger as a source of outlet and she had readily entered the land of rage. All she could see was red.

She was ready to rip Mark apart.

Mark for his part read all the signs and knew what was about to come. He knew he was a dead man walking, sitting next to the person who was about to kill him. Damage control was his only option.

"Look Cal! I didn't..."

His shaky words were interrupted by another person that they didn't realize had entered the scene.

"What is happening here?" The all heard the soft and melodic voice ask, with a hint of curiosity and exasperation.

All air left Callie's body as she heard the voice. She wasn't prepared for this at all. She felt everything happening in slow motion. The tap of the footsteps approaching the corridor, the silence that took over after the voice was heard, people shuffling around to run away and trying to not get caught staring when they should be doing their work.

Mark and Callie both recognized the owner of the voice before they even lifted their eyes to look at the person; Mark knew her as Doctor Robbins while Callie as Arizona.

….

 **AN: Guest reviewer b gave me the motivation I was lacking. You just had the perfect timing. Making me smile when I was really down. So, thank you for your kind words. This one's dedicated to u.**

 **Big sorry to Helena. I'm sorry for not updating. i loved all your reviews and your dedication to the story. Thank u thank u thank u so much. u r awesome.**

 **And big thank u to ssbngo, jamaicangreys, Kelly, Azsgirl, Danica-SQ, Ana, calzonafan123, Valley-10, oniao33, mientosz, furionknight and all the others who liked followed and reviewed. You all are awesome and I really love all the things you guys have to say. So thank you for sharing your thoughts.**


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: So, apparently I do take years to post chapters. A shout out to kaoritears for motivating me. Hope you guys like it.**

 **Recap: Callie thought Arizona had taken advantage of her drunk state while we later realized that was not the case. Meanwhile Arizona continues to find Callie whenever she breaks down and make her smile. What they both don't know is that Arizona has now gotten a job at the same hospital as Callie. Mark had tried to hit on Arizona to no avail. We left things with mark dragging Callie to the pediatric unit to introduce her to the notorious Dr. Robbins but ended up crashing in a supply cart instead.**

 **Back to the story now.**

… **..**

Arizona was busy, going from room to room, talking to the tiny humans, examining them, satisfying the worries of the makers of those tiny humans, reviewing charts, talking to her staff, changing some plans of actions and treatments where she thought were required or necessary. She found things in the hospital quite organized, all the equipment was state of the art, the staff very competent and the cases equally challenging. Even in normal circumstances parents are very worried and frustrated when they can't do much to help their child. But here as the cases were extremely complicated, it resulted in the parents being extremely on edge and ready to break at any instant so catering to them was also challenging. But the biggest problem here was that this all meant that she would have to give more than her best to save these kids because the considerable number of kids in terminal condition implied that she would have to use anything and everything she could to save them otherwise the number of tiny coffins in her dreams might increase more rapidly and she wasn't ready to let that happen. Hence, she had decided to be proactive. A few staff members did raise an eyebrow, on her changing plan of treatments for a few kids but didn't say anything except a particularly frustrating resident. The resident had been questioning her judgement continuously and was getting on her nerves. She didn't know what the resident's problem was. But before she could dwell on that subject more, she saw few of her staff members standing in a corridor near the entrance of the department staring at something.

'Just great. And that resident has a problem with me, when half of the people here are doing actually nothing.' She thought with an angry stomp of her foot.

She knew she had to set them straight so they knew who was in charge and that she wouldn't tolerate any distractions. So she started her angry march towards the corridor as she asked in her sternest voice.

"What is happening here?"

She saw people start to shuffle around, running back to their stations so they can start doing what they were actually being paid to do.

The sound of shoes slipping and gripping the floor was the most prominent one as she finally reached the corridor. But, the sight she was met with in the corridor even surprised her. Out of all the things she was expecting, two doctors lying on the floor, an upside down cart and equipment scattered all around was something that had not even remotely crossed her mind. Her eyes were fixated on the mess in the corridor, her type A personality couldn't get over it.

But before she could say anything, she realized that the people on the floor must have been the culprits; the ones who caused all this mess.

'How does one not see a whole full sized cart?' She thought as her eyes shifted to the duo on the floor.

She felt rage slowly bubbling up in her body. Her eyes immediate recognized Mark Sloan on the floor, who was hovering over another doctor, whose face she couldn't quite see. After the information she had received earlier about Mark Sloan, and the current scene of him being on top of a female, made Arizona's brain reach a single very obvious conclusion. And the cart being knocked down in the heat of passion sounded a good enough explanation for her.

But all her irritation and anger immediately slipped out of her body, like the grains of sand slipping from ones hand, she had no control over the aggressive emotions being replaced by one of utter shock. Because as Mark shifted a bit, she came face to face with the woman. And lying on the floor, in front of her was none other than Calliope Torres.

"Calliope." She didn't even have control over the words that left her own mouth.

Her words got no response from Callie whose eyes were trained on something on the floor and she was not ready to stop scrutinizing that object. On the other hand though, Mark's head had whipped around, looking at the blue eyes with a look of utter surprise. He was not only shocked that the blonde beauty knew his best friend but also because of the fact that she had called Callie 'Calliope'.

….

She felt how her toes starting to get cold and how that sensation slowly travelled on and spread through her entire being, finally reaching her head and numbing not just her body but her nervous system as well. All thoughts left her brain, or ran away and hid somewhere in the dark corners where she could not find them. She was hyper aware when her body started sweating and the fact that she hadn't lifted her eyes to look up at the familiar stranger whom she knew by now would be staring at her with questioning eyes. She shook her head almost imperceptibly trying to clear her head of the fog that had took over and suddenly things started to move at a normal pace. She wasn't ready for them to get back in speed because she hadn't come up with an appropriate response yet. She knew there must be a fallen cart and a mess of equipment as she was lying here at all sorts of awkward angles with Mark in a position that was in between sitting and hovering above her trying to help her get up.

'MARK' her mind finally registered a word and she turned her head to stare at him.

Mark for his part was extremely worried and amused because of his friend, but after hearing the voice of Dr. Robbins, he knew he had successfully embarrassed himself in front of the other woman the second time and he knew she wouldn't let him live it down.

'So much for all my smoothness. Well there goes my plan.' He cursed the situation he had found himself in.

He should have known something was bound to go wrong. Stealth was not his or Callie's strong suit.

'Oh Callie.' His brain shouted and he looked at her.

She looked as white as a ghost, her face expressionless, but there was a storm of emotions going through her eyes. She looked like she was lost somewhere else. So, he called her name gently to shake her free from her state.

"Cal..."

"Calliope."

He said at the same time as Dr. Robbins.

He moved his now questioning eyes to Callie but was met with a very embarrassed face. Callie was not looking at him and was just staring at the floor again.

Callie's mind had finally caught up to the situation. Arizona was Doctor Robbins. She was a doctor, a head of department to be precise; in her hospital. She was Teddy's best friend. She was a doctor! She was a doctor and never told her. Or was she stalking Callie?!

Arizona also had her brain running several mile per hour. Her mind was connecting all the dots. Callie had told her she was a doctor. Then she had found Callie close to the hospital they day before. And before she knew it she was addressing Callie with a worried note to her voice.

"Are you okay?" Her voice was soft as she enquired.

As if the question broke the spell, Mark immediately stood up as Callie followed his actions. His eyes were jumping from one woman to another. One of whom was busy staring at the floor, thinking hard while the other had her eyes trained on the one lost in thought.

"How do you know her?" He inquired looking at Doctor Robbins.

He knew he was going to get no response from Callie. And as far as he knew, both women had yet to meet each other.

Meanwhile Callie was still busy processing everything. The woman who had been caring towards her, whom she had hit on, whom she had decided to forget about forever and never call again, who had seen her cry her eyes out and breakdown was standing in front of her. She had caught her in another compromising position. All the embarrassment that was collecting itself in the forefront of her brain triggered her self-defense mechanism and once again it tuned into anger.

"What the hell are you doing here Arizona? You never said you were a doctor. Did you purposely hold back that Information? Or did you try to find out where I worked so that you can see the mess that I have made of my life first hand?" Callie bombarded questions and accusations at Arizona in one single breath.

Mark was initially shocked and was trying to put the name Arizona in some context, trying to remember who she was. He could have sworn that he had heard that name before.

Arizona's worry had changed into shock and then anger as Callie kept on talking. She had enough of Callie going off on her in every normal conversation that they had. But before she could answer Mark spoke up.

"Oh my God! You are Cal's blonde sexy lesbian angel." Mark had finally remembered who Arizona was and had put two and two together.

And he couldn't control his mouth after the realization. Both women's head whipped in his direction.

Callie's eyes filled with shock, anger and embarrassment. She couldn't believe he had said that out loud. Although Arizona was originally confused but soon a smirk took over her face as she realized that it was their name for her.

"I'm what?" Arizona asked with a smile.

"What the hell Mark. You know what forget it." And then Callie turned around and almost ran away from the wretched corridor.

"Callie! Cal!" Mark shouted as he ran after his best friend.

"Hey! Please stop." He bellowed again.

But Callie was not ready to slowdown and Mark was not ready to give up. He sped up a little trying to reach her when his pager beeped.

"Damn it." He cursed under his breath and begrudgingly turned the other way.

Meanwhile Arizona was now left standing alone in the corridor, completely confused.

"What the hell!" She exclaimed.

For all she knew something was going on between Mark and Callie and somehow Mark had done something to upset the ortho beauty. She was worried and wanted to run after Callie and inquire what was wrong. But the more worrisome thought that paralyzed her was the fact that she was so concerned about this fascinating stranger. She couldn't call Callie a stranger. She knew a lot about Callie, way more than a lot of people here knew. But then again, there were loads of things that she didn't know. But all she knew was that she wanted to see her smile, and more importantly she wanted to be the source of that smile. Because anyone can laugh. Laughing is easy, it's superﬁcial. A genuine smile, now that is not an easy task. It symbolizes a calm, a happiness that exists not because someone used a jest filled play of words but because one is just satisﬁed or just content.

...

Mark was sitting in the attending's lounge holding his bowed head in his hands with a crestfallen look. He had tried to ﬁnd Callie but had been unsuccessful in locating her whereabouts. But he had heard the rumours ﬂying around that mentioned people mentioning Callie and crying in the same sentence. And he didn't like it that all. He didn't know what to do. But he also knew that he had to do something.

That's when the door to the lounge opened. Mark lifted his head to ﬁnd Dr. Altman and none other than Dr. Robbins enter. They were talking about some case as they made their way to the couch opposite to Mark. Mark was continuously staring at Arizona; this time for totally different reasons than the morning.

This woman sitting in front of him had managed to make his best friend smile on more than one occasion. A thing that he was failing miserably at doing. He was supporting her sure, keeping her strong; helping her get through the day. But this woman, who was a complete stranger had supported his best friend when he wasn't there. She didn't have to. She didn't have any afﬁliation with Callie. Yet she did. And he couldn't be more thankful for that. He discovered a new found respect developing inside of him for this person who had selﬂessly helped a complete stranger. He was brought out of his thoughts by Teddy snapping her ﬁngers in front of his face.

"Sloan! Hey!"

He found both the women staring at him questioningly.

"Sorry! I was just thinking" He replied seriously.

"I hope you are keeping the thoughts PG." Teddy joked.

"Mhmm. Yeah." Mark answered distracted.

That's when both the women noticed the solemn look he was supporting, his furrowed brow, downcast head and the dejected body language. They both shared a concerned look with each other. Since the meeting in the morning and her later interactions with Mark, Arizona had categorized him as a shallow and careless person. But what she was seeing right now was not adding up with her earlier perception. Maybe she had judged him a bit too soon.

"Are u ok?" She asked him seriously.

Mark looked at the person he had already started respecting and the genuine concern he saw radiating from her eyes made him shift Arizona to an even higher moral pedestal.

"Can I talk to u? Alone." Mark asked with the utmost seriousness, emphasizing the last word.

To say that Arizona and Teddy were confused by the sudden yet serious though weird request, would be an understatement. After sharing a hesitant look with Teddy, Arizona just nodded.

"Yeah sure."

At that exact moment the door ﬂew open as a group of doctors walked in. Mark just looked at Arizona and gestured towards the door. Arizona quietly followed Mark as he made his way to the nearest on call room. As she got in, Mark closed the door and locked it. Before Arizona had time to question his action he spoke up.

"Thank u."

Arizona just looked at the man who was staring at the ﬂoor right now.

"Thank u?" Arizona questioned.

Mark took a deep breath, arranging his words as he lifted his head. And he started speaking with the sincerest tone he could manage.

"Yes. Thank u."

Arizona could see the genuine gratitude in the man's eyes but didn't know what she did to deserve all that. Because the last time they met, she had shot down his request for a date.

"I don't understand. I didn't do anything."

"No. That's not true. You...you did everything." Mark realized how he might not be making any sense to the blonde doctor.

So he asked for her to sit down so he could explain.

"I am Callie's best friend. And I care about her like crazy. She is hands down the most caring and loving person I have ever met. She has a huge heart. She sees the good in everyone. She knows how to make people feel special. But sadly people haven't been kind to her in return. And she has been hurt more times than I would like to remember. But she is one of the strongest people I know as well." Mark smiled as he talked about his best friend.

Arizona was shocked more and more with every word that came out of Mark's mouth. For a man who was known as materialistic around the hospital, he was showing way too much emotion.

"But George broke her. This whole ﬁasco made her fall; hard. And she had lost the strength to stand back up and I felt like this time she didn't even want to stand up. Like she had given up." Mark said with a slightly quivering voice.

Arizona could see the water swimming in his eyes threatening to out the man as the caring and loving being that he was.

"But then you happened. You always end up ﬁnding her when she needs someone the most. The times where I wasn't around. And I don't know what you did. Or what you said. But you got through to her. And I saw the ﬁght return in her eyes; no way near to what it used to be. But it is back. And that... that makes me really happy. So, thank you." Mark ﬁnally ﬁnished.

Arizona could clearly see the tears that had managed to break the barrier and fall down. She herself had tears ﬂowing down her face. She had clearly misjudged him. He was anything but shallow. He reminded her of Tim and Nick who always used to look out for her just like Mark was doing for Callie. And she couldn't control her own tears. The nostalgic memories were haunting her. She instantly got up and hugged the famous man-whore of the hospital. Mark kept on saying thank you with a quivering voice.

"Soooo! Hot lesbian guardian angel huh!" Arizona said as she stepped back from the hug and Mark started laughing.

"What? Are you now seriously complaining at being called hot and angelic?" Mark questioned with a smirk.

"Well! When you put it that way..." Arizona ﬁnished her sentence with a smirk of her own.

And they both exploded into laughter.

"You are not half as bad as I thought you were." Arizona said. "Except for the part when you asked me out all cockily."

Arizona was smiling with her dimples showing, indicating that she was joking.

"Oh no! I wasn't really interested in you." Mark immediately replied.

"Way to make a girl feel special." Arizona laughed.

"Well, I did call you hot. But I was trying to make Lexie jealous." Mark explained.

But as he saw Arizona's confused expressions he elaborated.

"Long story short. I love Lexie. She left me. She is dating some other douche. I was trying to see if she would get jealous if I went out with you. If she still cared."

Arizona nodded her head and it was followed by their pagers beeping, indicating an incoming trauma in the E.R. They both made their way out of the on-call room and suddenly Mark's smirk was back.

"First day and I already got you in the on call room with me. See, I am that good." Mark stated in a proud tone.

Arizona couldn't help but laugh.

"Oh yeah! I bet you got the best action of your life." Arizona replied equally boastful.

And the both burst out laughing once again. He was the total opposite of what Arizona had thought and never in her life had she been happier to be wrong.

To say that the clusters of staff in the E.R were shocked at seeing them enter together, laughing, would be the understatement of the year. Everyone looked like they didn't know how to react to what they were spectating, even Teddy looked shell shocked with her mouth hung open. While, Derek stared at them, confused. Within seconds the hospital will be ﬁlled with new gossip revolving around Mark Sloan and a certain blonde.

What nobody noticed was the way Callie was looking at the pair. They didn't notice the emotion being displayed on her face. Truth be told even she wasn't sure about what she was feeling. She felt like she was being betrayed. But she didn't know who she felt betrayed by; Mark for leaving her here and leaving with someone else. Or, God forbid, Arizona for putting a smile on someone else's face instead of hers. For caring about someone that was not her. Or was she jealous? But what would she be jealous of? There was nothing to be jealous about. Right?

…

After long surgery ﬁlled hours, the doctors of Seattle Grace Mercy West were ﬁnally free. All of them had some losses and some successes and they were ready to ﬁnally let loose. Callie, Lexie, Teddy and Derek were standing in the lobby ready to head out when Bailey joined them.

"Wanna go to Joe's and rant about how horrible Dr. Robbins is?" Callie asked Bailey.

She remembered how Arizona and Mark were all buddy, buddy and right now she needed someone on her side in hating Arizona.

"Oh no! I love her. I hate to accept it but she is good. Very good." Bailey said making Callie grit her teeth.

"But... But I thought you hated her." Callie clariﬁed.

"Who hates who?" April asked as she was walking by.

"Dr. Robbins." Callie answered ﬂatly.

"Oh! She is great. I was in the OR with her. Such a fun person." April gushed.

"Really! She has been here one day and you all are in love with her." Callie made a disgusted face.

"She is my best friend. I already loved her." Teddy commented with a wink, throwing her two cents in the discussion.

"Loved whom?" This time it was Mark joining the little band.

"Arizona." Derek responded with a smirk as she looked at a clearly irritated Callie.

"Oh I love her too. She..." Before he could continue Callie interrupted him.

"You love everyone that has two legs and doesn't have chest hair."

"Hey!" Mark protested. "She is hot. I agree. But she is very nice as a person as well. She has a pure heart and a very charismatic personality. She is a very caring and genuine person."

All the people in the group had their mouths fall open at this admission. Mark Sloan being not shallow about a woman. And that clearly annoyed one Lexie Grey which didn't go unnoticed by Callie. At least she had one ally.

Minutes later, they all were sitting in Joe's enjoying their drinks. Mark had apologized continuously and had been forgiven by Callie after all the groveling. That is when the bell above the entrance door chimed and in came none other than Arizona Robbins. She had a smile on her face as usual, dimples popping. And Callie was not at all staring, at least that's what she told herself. That's when she saw Arizona's eyes roam around and ﬁnally settle on their group.

As Arizona's eyes landed on the group, she immediately recognized most of the doctors. She didn't fail to notice the crestfallen look on Mark's face as he stared longingly at a woman, she didn't know, across the table. The woman though was busy talking animatedly with another guy. She immediately guessed that the other girl must be the one Mark was talking about. And her brain started working on overdrive as it formulated a plan. An evil smirk covered her face as she made her way towards the table.

"Hey." She greeted them all cheerfully as she reached the table.

She was rewarded with a mixture of drunk and broody heys. She then looked directly at Mark and made sure she was smiling big and that the girl Mark was pining after was looking at her.

"Let's get that dinner you promised me, Dr. Sloan." She said in a ﬂirtatious voice.

Mark who was busy being miserable just looked at with confusion in his eyes.

"I know we got delayed because of the emergency, but that doesn't mean we have to cancel our date."

She winked at Mark as she subtly pointed towards Lexie. All the jaws had hit the ﬂoor as they observed the interaction going on in front of their very own eyes. Mark ﬁnally understood what was going on and a smirk covered his face as he got in character.

"It's never polite to keep a beautiful lady waiting." He replied turning on all his charm.

He stood up and extended his arm towards Arizona who immediately held it.

"Bye everyone." Arizona waved at everyone sweetly as the pair left.

Derek turned around to see a seething Lexie trying to burn holes at the back of the pair's heads. And he couldn't help but smile. Surprisingly, Mark's plan was working and he had somehow managed to convince Arizona. One really doesn't know what is waiting for them around the corner.


	6. Chapter 6

**AN: I agree with you all. We need to kill this shyalien person/writer. She sucks and never updates. Who leaves people hanging? What kind of a person does that? Well, I guess this not so nice person needs to apologize. *silently waits for the person to apologize.***

 **Oh yeah! That person's me. Well shit! I need to think things through.**

 ***Takes a deep breath. Here goes nothing***

 **Okay so I am really really really reeeaalllyyyyyy with a chocolate on the top sorry. In my defense there was a lot going on. And I couldn't get in the right state of mind. But I finally did it. It was a combination of work, life and depression. But as someone once said, "we can always write the sickness out of us." it really resonated with me. Maybe someone else can relate to it.**

 **And thank you all for the constant support. I do really appreciate all the reviews. They always make my day better. They help me smile. They mean so much that I can't even describe it in words. So thank you so much or as they say in my native language "shukria". I love you all. So, I hope you enjoy the chapter. :D**

 **Recap: Well Callie sort of thought she slept with Arizona. And blasted off on her. Then she realized she didn't. But then Arizona ended up being the new doctor at the very same hospital as Callie and Callie being Callie couldn't accept that. And then Arizona and Mark became friends which Callie hated even more. Hmmm…what elseeee….lemme thinkkkk… OH YEAH! Arizona pretended to be Mark's date so she could help him with his not-so-genius-plan to make Lexi jealous. So, let's continue from there. :D**

 ***Damn I wrote an essay instead of an author's note. Oh well.***

"Was she looking? Was she jealous? Did she give you the cute angry stare? Or was she all neutral, sort of like a blank face." Mark rambled on, asking all the questions in a single breath.

Arizona and Mark had just made their dramatic exit from Joe's leaving quite a stunned audience behind them.

"Mark breathe." Arizona instructed. "I just got out of the hospital and I don't want to go back there because you passed out due to lack of oxygen."

Seeing Mark acting like this gave her too much of a nostalgic feeling. A feeling she was not ready to go through. He reminded her too much of Nick and Tim and all the weird plans they used to make. A part of her agreed to this whole thing because it made her feel closer to them in her twisted mind. But, the memories that suddenly came flooding back and overtook the reins of her brain were not something she was prepared for. So, she did, what she always did best. She blocked it all off in her brain. She took all those memories, stuffed them in a corner and then built walls so high and wide that even her subconscious would have difficulty reaching them. And within seconds she was back to her normal perky self.

It was quite astonishing, the fact that she had gone from nostalgia to pain to suffering to depression to anger and then finally to feeling neutral in all of five seconds. Even Mark who had been directly talking to her hadn't been able to pick the shifts. She had become very good at hiding her emotions and stuffing them away for later. The question though was if it was a good thing or a bad thing. Maybe, this was the reason she cared about Callie. Because, Callie was the complete opposite. She embraced her emotions, it was like she was incapable of creating any sort of barricade strong enough to keep them at bay. They always overtook her and ended up on display for the whole world. But the question still remained. Was this a good thing or bad?

"And yes, she was looking. And I don't know if she was jealous or not Mark. But, she was looking."

"I bet she was. I mean she must be right. There was no reason to not be looking. She had to be. Right? Right?" As Mark kept on asking his confidence in his plan kept on dwindling down.

So instead of making a confident and sure statement, he ended his rant by directing a question at Arizona. Arizona didn't acknowledge that with a verbal response but just gave him an obnoxious side stare that was enough to make Mark realize that he was acting all crazy.

"Ok. So, stopping the crazy talk. Where are we actually going?" He asked as they reached the parking lot.

"Well you will be dropping me off at home, as my car isn't here yet. But, after making a quick fast food take away stop. I am hungry!" Arizona laid out the plan.

Mark chuckled at the response.

"Okay then. Where do you live? Is your place near Teddy's?" he asked as they got in the car.

"Actually I live with Teddy. We are sharing the apartment. It's located in…"

Arizona started to explain but before she could tell the address, Mark interrupted her.

"Oh I know where it is." He let slip as he casually reversed the car.

"You do. Hmm" Arizona smirked storing that information in her brain for later usage, to tease Teddy.

She started a new job today, at a place where her best friend works as well. She saved lives. She made friends. She was going to get food soon. And she got some new ammunition to tease the hell out of Teddy. Life in Seattle was looking good. And she became surer of her decision to move here.

The next morning was once again a dull one for Callie. It was again a day when she didn't want to get out of the bed. Where the world seemed too daunting. A time where sleeping seemed like the only survivable option. Where her body just felt too heavy and too tired. Everything inside her was shouting at her to just keep her aching mind and body in the confines of her bed and ignore the rest.

'What was even the point of getting up?' The thought reverberated in her head.

'I mean I will have to look at George and Izzie being all over each other. I will have to hide away from the pitiful stares. I would have to avoid breaking down in front of yet another person. I have made a fool out of myself so many times. I am the entertainment of the day for people. The interns who are nothing more than scum also make fun of me.'

Just yesterday she had to face a problem. One of the interns had whispered some harsh words about her and she had completely lost it. She had rained down on the poor guy like a destructive storm. But, the incident had taken place inside a patient's room. And he had demanded to get his doctor changed. 'Someone with a less temperamental personality' he had said. Her personal life was a mess, she was mentally all over the place and now even her professional life was getting effected. She just couldn't get a break. And tomorrow was her court date. The day when George will finally be free. They day where she will be sentenced to prison of solitude, infinite stares and disgrace. How ironic was it that one person's freedom was another person's imprisonment sentence. Her life had taken a downward plunge and was approaching rock-bottom at an alarming pace.

Her thoughts were getting darker with every passing minute. It goes without saying that she was really feeling worthless today.

'What would change? What effect would my being absent or present in the hospital have? Who would even notice? Maybe people would even be happier without her existence and the drama that surrounds her.' she was facing another onslaught of questions in her head soon.

But before she got carried away in that direction something caught her eye. It was a silver ring, resting at the side table on the opposite side of the bed. She was pretty sure it didn't belong to her. She had been pretty lazy when it came to cleaning recently, being rather busy wallowing. So this could have been here for days, without her actually noticing.

Curiosity got the better of her and she moved to the other side of the bed to get to the ring. She picked it up, looking at it carefully as she held it between her thumb and forefinger.

And then suddenly she remembered.

"Your thumb is wearing a shiny crown." Callie's childlike fascinated laugh reverberated in the apartment.

Arizona was trying her best to keep Callie upright but the other woman wasn't making it easy. Her sudden remark distracted her and ended up with Callie falling on the sofa in a heap of limbs, in the lounge, where they had barely reached after loads of effort. The blonde just sighed.

"What are you even talking about?" Arizona asked out of breath, confused and a bit frustrated due to Callie's lack of compliance.

"Whose thumb wears a crown?" Arizona heard Callie's muffled voice from the sofa followed by the most adorable drunk giggles she had ever heard.

And just like that her frustration went down the drain and a smile took over her face. Callie was being an adorable drunk and she couldn't help but melt at the sight. Arizona fell next to Callie on the sofa that created a sudden bounce and Callie's body jumped a little. And this again made Callie giggle.

'What have I gotten myself into?' Arizona thought fondly.

That's when Callie felt a hand running through her hair and she hummed in delight. The insignificant action somehow soothed her aching heart and made her feel loved. People always understate the importance of innocent physical affection and human touch. They ignore how much safety and emotional comfort these trivial actions can bring. And right now Callie was fully appreciating this fact. As the feelings washed over her, tiny pearls of liquid started to swim in her eyes threatening to fall at a moment's notice. The question of them being happy tears or sad was something even she couldn't answer herself. All she knew was that at this very moment she felt a little less alone. And that is all we as humans crave; to feel a little less alone in this world filled with people. She slowly lifted her head from where it was buried in the cushions to peer at the person who made her feel a little safe and that is when her eyes met the striking blue ones. Arizona saw the tears polling in Callie's eyes and she panicked and what Arizona Robbins does best when she is panicked is ramble. But she didn't know what to talk about or how to distract the woman so she just continued with what Callie was talking about previously.

"Well I think it's unique." Arizona blurted out.

This made Callie blink in confusion, her drunk brain clearly not being able to process all the words on top of the emotional storm raging in her head. Arizona lifted her hand in the air and pointed towards her thumb ring and saw the sparkle of understanding dawn in Callie's now less tear-filled eyes.

"Everyone wears the crown on their heads. So, I wanted to be a bit more creative. So, I figured wearing it on my thumb would be awesome." Arizona rambled on and tried to think up of more reasons at the same time.

Callie was so lost in what Arizona was saying that she had forgotten about everything else. Her brows were now furrowed as she tried to understand the logic.

"Plus wearing it on your head would ruin your hair." Callie supplied with a very serious face making Arizona smile and shake her head at this adorable woman.

"You are an adorable drunk." Arizona suddenly announced out loud.

This made Callie's face scrunch up and she started to sit up. Arizona tried to help her but got her hands swatted away. After a few awkward angles, Callie had managed to sit up and looked at Arizona with all the seriousness she could muster. Arizona looked at the whole scene amused.

"I am not adorable. I am badass." Callie said with conviction in her voice and her hands resting on her hips. She didn't look scary at all.

Her actions made Arizona burst out laughing. Callie couldn't believe the nerve of the woman in front of her now laughing at her and started to pout. This acted as fuel for Arizona's laughter who started laughing all over again.

"I don't like you anymore and your dumb royal thumb." Callie muttered as she tried to stand up but almost lost her balance.

Before she could fall down, she was being supported by two strong arms.

"Woah! Careful there miss badass." Arizona's voice struck Callie's ears.

Callie whipped her head around to say something really sassy because she knew the other woman was making fun of her. Instead she ended up groaning as a wave of nausea suddenly took over her. She pushed the other woman and staggered towards the bathroom.

Arizona who was shocked by the sudden actions of the other woman realized what was happening when she heard the sounds of Callie puking her guts out somewhere in the apartment. Arizona was never a woman who was big on holding hair while the other person pukes. But, at that moment she didn't even think twice as her protective instincts kicked in and she followed the voice of the vomiting brunette.

Arizona found the brunette sitting on the bathroom floor with vomit coating her hair and clothes. Callie was sobbing and Arizona's heart broke at the sight. Without thinking she hugged the brunette. Arizona was now running on instincts rather than rational thought. She silently and slowly helped Callie to get in the bathtub. She then proceeded to help Callie take her dress off leaving her in her undergarments and turned on the shower. Slowly she ran her hands through Callie's hair and proceeded to wash them for her.

Callie had stopped crying for some time now and was looking at the woman taking care of her. Callie who had such low self-esteem now a days didn't know why someone would help her and waste their time on her. She was too confused and shocked to question anything. She was broken out of her staring by a flushed Arizona who was fully aware of the constant gaze.

"Okay! Let's get you to your bed." Arizona spoke softly breaking Callie from her thoughts.

Callie just nodded her head and started moving towards the door while Arizona finished cleaning the bathroom. Upon exiting she found Callie laying in her bed completely naked.

"I… Ummm… The bathroom is c-clean." Arizona stuttered as she tried to look anywhere but at Callie.

"I'm cold." Callie mumbled after a few moments of complete silence, completely ignoring what Arizona had said.

Arizona was initially shocked but slowly moved towards the bed and dragged the covers over the other woman's perfect body.

"I cleaned the bathroom up a bit. So, I am gonna…" before Arizona could inform Callie that she was going to leave she was cut off by Callie looking at her incredulously.

"You cleaned the bathroom using your royal thumb?" Callie asked and just like that Arizona started laughing, all sense of being uncomfortable gone.

"Yes! I did. Imagine that! I don't know what all the other royals will say." Arizona winked at the woman "it will be so scandalous."

Callie extended her hand towards Arizona like she was asking for something. Arizona just stood next to the bed confused about Callie's actions.

"I wanna talk to the royal thumb." Callie spoke dizzily.

Arizona now understood and silently moved her ring clad hand towards Callie. Callie held Arizona's hand and inspected for a few minutes before surprising Arizona and placing a kiss on her thumb. Everything suddenly seemed to have turned around to the lighter side to things. But Callie was the kind of drunk who almost always ended up sharing her darkest thoughts and that is exactly what she did.

She looked at Arizona and uttered some simple words. But those simple words shook Arizona to her core. It's interesting to observe how language works. Most words are completely trivial and insignificant. We use them every day and everywhere. But, these words combine and are arranged in a certain unexplainable way, they have the strength to make or ruin emotions. Their impact is forever and way more powerful than one person's sanity can handle.

"Well thank you for helping me. I know you helped me because you wanted to have sex with me. So, we can do that now…" Arizona immediately cut in. The bluntness of Callie's words had her petrified.

"No! No! No! That's not why I…" Arizona was at a loss for words. She didn't know what to say. She was not expecting this at all.

"Why would you help me then? I am not a likeable person. I am not a person whom people care about. I am just me. Someone people use. I am not worth much truthfully." Callie finished with utmost seriousness.

Arizona for her part was stunned. She didn't have words or maybe she dint have the emotional strength to respond to such string of words. She couldn't make her tongue move. She didn't know how to react to such heart break and self-loathing.

"No! Listen to me." she began with as much strength and conviction she could. "YOU ARE NOT WORTHLESS. You are a badass surgeon who saves lives. You are smart, beautiful, kind and funny. I came here to help you because a great human being like you who helps everyone every day and cares about everyone without discrimination deserves the same in return. And don't even try to deny any of it. Because this all is true. You are the kind of a person who has the capability to make people's day better just by being in the same room. You are full of wit. I had such a great time talking to you in the bar. I have never enjoyed anybody's company as much as I did yours. God! I don't even understand why you would even think so less of yourself. " Arizona finished as she ran her hand in frustration through blonds locks.

Brown eyes were again shedding tears by the time Arizona finished. Callie couldn't believe someone would care enough about her. She was then engulfed in a big warm hug. And Callie lost her inhibitions. She cried until she couldn't breathe anymore. And with those tears she told Arizona all about her life; her failures and downfalls. Arizona kept on holding her and heard each and every word. Callie couldn't believe someone was actually being attentive towards her and listening to her without any ulterior motives. So, she poured her heart out. She trusted the blonde haired beauty.

After hours and hours of storytelling and tear shedding on Callie's part and hugs and supporting words from Arizona all was quiet in the bedroom. Arizona stood up to leave and Callie's heart dropped.

"Are you going to leave too? You think I am pathetic too?" Callie asked her face depicting the amount of vulnerability she felt.

And Arizona couldn't find it in herself to hurt the beautifully broken woman. The sight in front of her awakening some sort of protective instincts in her. So she simply moved towards the other side of the bed.

"No. Just taking off this ring and putting it right here." She said as she placed it on the table and then took her jacket off. "And I am going to stay right here next to you."

Callie couldn't stop the smile that took over her face. Her drunken mind and broken heart couldn't believe that someone was wasting their time on her; that someone cared enough to stay.

"You are worth too much to leave." Arizona's heartfelt words ringed in her head.

'YOU ARE WORTH TOO MUCH'

The words kept on echoing in Callie's mind as she stared at the ring held tightly between her shaking fingers. She could try to deny it but the memories of those words somehow ended up providing her with the strength she needed. They made her feel something. She didn't know what emotion it was. But, it evoked an emotion. And for now that was enough. She needed a thread to hold onto. And the words acted as that thread. They caused a little stir in her numb mind. And that is all she required at that moment and time.

She encapsulated the ring in her fist holding it as strongly as she could and allowed it to give her strength like it bore some kind of magical power. She had tears streaming down her face, her eyes closed tightly but her lips were turned up into a smile. And she suddenly threw the covers off her and got up from the bed. And anyone going through pain could tell you what a big accomplishment that is.

Arizona had once again saved her. But for now Callie was way more focused on the positive things to realize or dwell upon how to thank Arizona or how awkward she might feel when the situation would finally sink in her mind. It was sure that awkwardness was surely in her cards in the future. Who said life isn't fun?


End file.
